Lincoln's Birthday

Many Americans would be surprised to learn that Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, February 12, 1809, has never been celebrated as a federal holiday. The day is often associated (erroneously) with Presidents Day, officially Washington’s Birthday and celebrated on the third Monday in February. But even without an official national holiday, Lincoln remains among the most admired American presidents. His face is printed on the five-dollar bill and stamped on the penny. He has national shrines in three states, including one of America’s most iconic landmarks—the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC.
What accounts for our extraordinary interest in Abraham Lincoln? In this ebook, we examine the words and deeds of our sixteenth president. The first chapter explores the origins and traditions of celebrating Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. The second chapter looks at the life and career of Lincoln: his improbable rise from humblest origins; his statesmanship during the Civil War, and his tragic death. The final chapter raises questions about how we today are to remember Lincoln.
Each selection includes a brief introduction by the editors with guiding questions for discussion.

The Origins and Traditions of Lincoln’s Birthday Holiday
Many Americans would be surprised to learn that Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, February
12, 1809, has never been celebrated as a federal holiday. The day is often associated
(erroneously) with Presidents Day, officially Washington’s Birthday and celebrated on the
third Monday in February. 1
On February 12, 1866, ten months after his assassination, the first address
commemorating Lincoln’s birthday was given to Congress. Historian and statesman
George Bancroft wrote in his memorial remarks that Lincoln was “to be remembered
through all time by his countrymen.” 2 Seven years later, a holiday celebrating Lincoln was
proposed by Julius Francis, a shopkeeper from Buffalo, New York. Francis began sending
Congress elaborate memorial pamphlets as part of his campaign to establish a legal holiday
for Lincoln on February 12. These memorials, signed by 50 residents of Buffalo, were
placed “on parchment, backed with blue silk, with 50 white stars, and exquisite needlework
border, inserted in a folding case of French walnut, and enclosed in a Russia leather case.” 3
A year later, Francis organized the first public celebration of Lincoln’s birth in Buffalo,
which was celebrated each year until Francis’s death in 1881. This event included many
readings in honor of Lincoln, as well as an official address, singing, prayer, and
instrumental music. 4 Francis also incorporated the original Lincoln Birthday Association
on December 24, 1877.
But this sentiment was not shared by all Americans, nor acted upon at the federal level.
Lincoln’s legacy remained controversial and tied to the bitter politics of Reconstruction.
The South, which made up one-fifth of the U.S. population at the time, was still occupied
by the U.S. military. While many Southerners sincerely grieved over Lincoln’s death, with
notable expressions of regret by Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee, others were unable to
put the bitterness of the war behind them. As Southern diarist Kate Stone wrote, “What
torrents of blood Lincoln has caused to flow, and how Seward has aided him in his bloody
work. I cannot be sorry for their fate. They deserve it. They have reaped their just reward.” 5
The North-South split was not the only obstacle to designating Lincoln’s birthday as a
national holiday. With the American centennial fast approaching, George Washington
overshadowed Lincoln in the public memory. Beyond pointing to the practical problem of
their birthdays being just ten days apart, critics argued that honoring Lincoln would be to
depreciate Washington’s unique place in American history. As the New York Times argued,
“It may be doubted, whether the distinctive honor conferred on the memory of Washington
should be divided even in the case of Abraham Lincoln.” 6
1

For more about Washington’s Birthday, see our ebook, The Meaning of Washington’s Birthday,
www.whatsoproudlywehail.org/curriculum/the-american-calendar/the-meaning-of-washingtons-birthday.
2
A free copy of the address can be found at http://archive.org/details/abrahamlincolnme00banc.
3
Julius E. Francis, The Lincoln Memorial Collection, 25.
4
Lincoln Memorial Collection, 26.
5
For more about the debate of Lincoln’s Legacy, read Smithsonian Magazine’s “Lincoln’s Contested
Legacy,” www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Lincolns-Contested-Legacy.html.
6
Forge of National Memory, 101.

This concern did not deter Hannibal Hamlin, Lincoln’s vice president from 1861–65
and the former governor of Maine, from taking up the cause. In an 1887 letter to the
Republican Club of New York, expressing his regrets at being unable to attend a dinner
marking the occasion, he wrote:
Your club has well and wisely acted in making this the commencement of
an annual observance of Mr. Lincoln’s Birthday. The day should be made
national like the Birth day of Washington. Let each be appropriately
observed, as one of the best things to inculcate upon those who, in the ages,
shall come after us. It is patriotic to do so, and it serves to promote a love
of country and keep alive and fresh a memory of Patriotic men. 7
In 1951, a Presidents Day National Committee was formed by Harold Stonebridge
Fischer. He lobbied for the creation of a day honoring all presidents to be celebrated March
4, the original inauguration date. This act was defeated in the Senate Judiciary Committee,
on the grounds that the holiday would be too close to Lincoln’s and Washington’s
birthdays. Though not federally enacted, many state governors liked the idea and
proclaimed Presidents Day a holiday.
Establishing Lincoln’s birthday as a federal holiday was further complicated by the
passing of the 1968 Uniform Holiday Act, which moved several federal holidays, including
Memorial Day and Washington’s Birthday, to specific Mondays throughout the year in
order to create more three-day weekends.
Eventually, individual states created their own Presidents Day holidays to be observed
on the third Monday in February. This celebration has been enacted in some fashion by 38
states, though never federally, and each varies by state. While some mark the day as a
specific remembrance of Washington and Lincoln (like Arizona), others view it as a day
of general recognition for all U.S. presidents. Alabama celebrates Washington and
Jefferson as opposed to the more common combination of Washington and Lincoln. A few
states observe Washington’s Birthday in February and then celebrate Presidents Day in a
different month, for example, the day after Thanksgiving in New Mexico and December
24 in Indiana and Georgia. Eighteen states don’t specify at all what Presidents Day
celebrates. 8 Presidents Day has also gained some national recognition from retailers, who
use the long weekend to offer sales. 9
A few state governments have enacted legislation recognizing Lincoln’s birthday on
February 12 as its own official holiday. Most notably, Illinois, the “Land of Lincoln” and
his adopted home state, celebrates Lincoln’s birthday as an official school holiday, 10 along
with a few other states including New York, Connecticut, and Missouri. However, this
7

A copy of the original letter sent from Hamlin is located at www.shapell.org/manuscript.aspx?hannibalhamlin-proposes-lincoln-birthday-national-observance.
8
A state-by-state breakdown of the holiday can be found at http://geometrx.com/2012/02/presidents-dayor-washingtons-birthday-which-states-observe-which-holiday/.
9
Barry Schwartz, Abraham Lincoln in the Post-Heroic Era: History and Memory in Late TwentiethCentury America, 198–99.
10
The state laws of Illinois can be found at www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/documents/010500050k24-2.htm.

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The Origins and Traditions of Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday Holiday
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number has declined in recent years, when both California and New Jersey ended the
celebration of Lincoln’s birthday as paid holidays to cut budgetary costs. Unfortunately,
more states now celebrate Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, as a holiday for state
employees than celebrate Lincoln’s birthday.
Even without an official national holiday, Lincoln remains among the most admired
American presidents. His face is printed on the five-dollar bill and stamped on the penny.
He has national shrines in three states, including one of America’s most iconic
landmarks—the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC.
Though not federally recognized, Lincoln’s birthday is still commemorated by
Americans. Wreaths are laid at notable Lincoln landmarks throughout the United States,
including his birthplace in Kentucky, his tomb in Springfield, Illinois, and the Lincoln
Memorial—the walls of which are still inscribed with this promise:
In this Temple
As In The Hearts Of The People
For Whom He Saved The Union
The Memory of Abraham Lincoln
Is Enshrined Forever.

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Lincoln Centennial Address
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
The centennial celebration of Lincoln’s birth—February 12, 1909—was recognized and
observed across the country with parades, concerts, school programs, and oratory. Gun
salutes were fired at New York Harbor and National Guard batteries. At public schools,
students read aloud the Gettysburg Address. In Boston, Julia Ward Howe (1819–1910),
author of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” presented a new poem, “A Vision,” to a joint
session of the Massachusetts House and Senate.
In Hodgenville, Kentucky, Lincoln’s birthplace, President Theodore Roosevelt (1858–
1919) delivered the keynote remarks and later applied the first trowel of mortar on the
cornerstone of the temple John Russell Pope would build to shelter the tiny log cabin. Why
does Roosevelt hold up Lincoln, along with George Washington, as one of the “greatest of
our public men”? What virtues does he ascribe to Lincoln? What is his “supreme vision”?
Do you agree with Roosevelt’s claim that Lincoln saw the same “high qualities” in both
the North and the South? Should we today feel “an equal pride” in those who fought,
regardless of the side they fought for?
We have met here to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the birth of one of the two
greatest Americans; of one of the two or three greatest men of the nineteenth century; of
one of the greatest men in the world’s history. This rail splitter, this boy who passed his
ungainly youth in the dire poverty of the poorest of the frontier folk, whose rise was by
weary and painful labor, lived to lead his people through the burning flames of a struggle
from which the nation emerged, purified as by fire, born anew to a loftier life. After long
years of iron effort and of failure that came more often than victory, he at last rose to the
leadership of the Republic at the moment when that leadership had become the stupendous
world task of the time. He grew to know greatness, but never ease. Success came to him,
but never happiness, save that which springs from doing well a painful and a vital task.
Power was his, but not pleasure. The furrows deepened on his brow, but his eyes were
undimmed by either hate or fear. His gaunt shoulders were bowed, but his steel thews never
faltered as he bore for a burden the destinies of his people. His great and tender heart shrank
from giving pain, and the task allotted him was to pour out like water the lifeblood of the
young men and to feel in his every fiber the sorrow of the women. Disaster saddened but
never dismayed him. Triumph was his at the last, and barely had he tasted it before murder
found him, and the kindly, patient, fearless eyes were closed forever.
As a people we are indeed beyond measure fortunate in the characters of the two
greatest of our public men, Washington and Lincoln. They were alike in essentials—they
were alike in the great qualities which rendered each able to render service to his nation
and to all mankind such as no other man of his generation could or did render. There have
been other men as great and other men as good, but in all the history of mankind there are
no other two great men as good as these, no other two good men as great. Widely though
the problems of today differ from the problems set for solution to Washington when he
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founded this nation, to Lincoln when he saved it and freed the slave, yet the qualities they
showed in meeting these problems are exactly the same as those we should show in doing
our work today.
Lincoln saw into the future with the prophetic imagination usually vouchsafed only to
the poet and the seer. He had in him all the lift toward greatness of the visionary, without
any of the visionary’s fanaticism or egotism, without any of the visionary’s narrow jealousy
of the practical man and inability to strive in practical fashion for the realization of an ideal.
No more practical man ever lived than this homely backwoods idealist, but he had nothing
in common with those practical men whose consciences are warped until they fail to
distinguish between good and evil, fail to understand that strength, ability, shrewdness,
whether in the world of business or of politics, only serve to make their possessor a more
noxious, a more evil member of the community, if they are not guided and controlled by a
fine and high moral sense.
We of this day must try to solve many social and industrial problems requiring to an
especial degree the combination of indomitable resolution with cool headed sanity. We can
profit by the way in which Lincoln used both these traits as he strove for reform. We can
learn much of value from the very attacks which following that course brought upon his
head, attacks alike by the extremists of revolution and by the extremists of reaction. He
never wavered in devotion to his principles, in his love for the Union and in his abhorrence
of slavery. Timid and lukewarm people were always denouncing him because he was too
extreme; but, as a matter of fact, he never went to extremes.
Yet perhaps the most wonderful thing of all, and, from the standpoint of the America
of today and of the future, the most vitally important, was the extraordinary way in which
Lincoln could fight valiantly against what he deemed wrong and yet preserve undiminished
his love and respect for the brother from whom he differed. In the hour of a triumph that
would have turned any weaker man’s head, in the heat of a struggle which spurred many a
good man to dreadful vindictiveness, he said truthfully that so long as he had been in his
office he had never willingly planted a thorn in any man’s bosom and besought his
supporters to study the incidents of the trial through which they were passing as philosophy
from which to learn wisdom and not as wrongs to be avenged, ending with the solemn
exhortation that, as the strife was over, all should reunite in a common effort to save their
common country.
He lived in days that were great and terrible, when brother fought against brother for
what each sincerely deemed to be the right, in a contest so grim the strong men who alone
can carry it through are rarely able to do justice to the deep convictions of those with whom
they grapple in mortal strife. At such times men see through a glass darkly. To only the
rarest and loftiest spirits is vouchsafed that clear vision which gradually comes to all, even
to the lesser, as the struggle fades into distance and wounds are forgotten and peace creeps
back to the hearts that were hurt. But to Lincoln was given this supreme vision. He did not
hate the man from whom he differed. Weakness was as foreign as wickedness to his strong,
gentle nature. But his courage was of a quality so high that it needed no bolstering of dark
passion. He saw clearly that the same high qualities, the same courage and willingness for
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self sacrifice and devotion to the right as it was given them to see the right, belonged both
to the men of the north and to the men of the south. As the years roll by, and as all of us,
wherever we dwell, grow to feel an equal pride in the valor and self devotion, alike of the
men who wore the blue and the men who wore the gray, so this whole nation will grow to
feel a peculiar sense of pride in the mightiest of the mighty men who mastered the mighty
days, the lover of his country and of all mankind, the man whose blood was shed for the
union of his people and for the freedom of a race, Abraham Lincoln.

12

Address on Abraham Lincoln
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON
At another celebration of Lincoln’s centennial birthday, the African American educator
and leader Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) addressed the Republican Club of New
York City. As Washington movingly narrates in these remarks, he was born a slave on a
Virginia tobacco plantation—the son of the plantation’s cook and a white father he would
never know. As a nine-year-old boy, Washington would learn that he and his family were
free, three years after the first issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation.
What accomplishments does Washington ascribe to Lincoln? Why does Washington
attribute higher importance to “the freedom of the soul” over “the freedom of the body”?
Do you agree—why or why not? What does Lincoln’s example teach us, and what lessons
does it have, in particular for African Americans, according to Washington? Do you agree
with his claim that “no one can degrade us except ourselves; that if we are worthy, no
influence can defeat us”? Why do you think Washington ends his speech with praise of the
“brave and true white men of the South”?
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: You ask that which he found a piece of property
and turned into a free American citizen to speak to you tonight on Abraham Lincoln. I am
not fitted by ancestry or training to be your teacher tonight for, as I have stated, I was born
a slave.
My first knowledge of Abraham Lincoln came in this way: I was awakened early one
morning before the dawn of day, as I lay wrapped in a bundle of rags on the dirt floor of
our slave cabin, by the prayers of my mother, just before leaving for her day’s work, as she
was kneeling over my body earnestly praying that Abraham Lincoln might succeed, and
that one day she and her boy might be free. You give me the opportunity here this evening
to celebrate with you and the nation the answer to that prayer.
Says the Great Book somewhere, “Though a man die, yet shall he live.” If this is true
of the ordinary man, how much more true is it of the hero of the hour and the hero of the
century—Abraham Lincoln! One hundred years of the life and influence of Lincoln is the
story of the struggles, the trials, ambitions, and triumphs of the people of our complex
American civilization. Interwoven into the warp and woof of this human complexity is the
moving story of men and women of nearly every race and color in their progress from
slavery to freedom, from poverty to wealth, from weakness to power, from ignorance to
intelligence. Knit into the life of Abraham Lincoln is the story and success of the nation in
the blending of all tongues, religions, colors, races into one composite nation, leaving each
group and race free to live its own separate social life, and yet all a part of the great whole.
If a man die, shall he live? Answering this question as applied to our martyred
President, perhaps you expect me to confine my words of appreciation to the great boon
which, through him, was conferred upon my race. My undying gratitude and that of ten
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millions of my race for this and yet more! To have been the instrument used by Providence
through which four millions of slaves, now grown into ten millions of free citizens, were
made free would bring eternal fame within itself, but this is not the only claim that Lincoln
has upon our sense of gratitude and appreciation.
By the side of Armstrong and Garrison, Lincoln lives today. In the very highest sense
he lives in the present more potently than fifty years ago; for that which is seen is temporal,
that which is unseen is eternal. He lives in the 32,000 young men and women of the Negro
race learning trades and useful occupations; in the 200,000 farms acquired by those he
freed; in the more than 400,000 homes built; in the forty-six banks established and 10,000
stores owned; in the $550,000,000 worth of taxable property in hand; in the 28,000 public
schools existing, with 30,000 teachers; in the 170 industrial schools and colleges; in the
23,000 ministers and 26,000 churches.
But, above all this, he lives in the steady and unalterable determination of ten millions
of black citizens to continue to climb year by year the ladder of the highest usefulness and
to perfect themselves in strong, robust character. For making all this possible, Lincoln lives.
But, again, for a higher reason he lives tonight in every corner of the republic. To set
the physical man free is much. To set the spiritual man free is more. So often the keeper is
on the inside of the prison bars and the prisoner on the outside.
As an individual, grateful as I am to Lincoln for freedom of body, my gratitude is still
greater for freedom of soul—the liberty which permits one to live up in that atmosphere
where he refuses to permit sectional or racial hatred to drag down, to warp and narrow his
soul.
The signing of the Emancipation Proclamation was a great event, and yet it was but the
symbol of another, still greater and more momentous. We who celebrate this anniversary
should not forget that the same pen that gave freedom to four millions of African slaves at
the same time struck the shackles from the souls of twenty-seven millions of Americans of
another color.
In any country, regardless of what its laws say, wherever people act upon the idea that
the disadvantage of one man is the good of another, there slavery exists. Wherever in any
country the whole people feel that the happiness of all is dependent upon the happiness of
the weakest, there freedom exists.
In abolishing slavery, Lincoln proclaimed the principle that, even in the case of the
humblest and weakest of mankind, the welfare of each is still the good of all. In
reestablishing in this country the principle that, at bottom, the interests of humanity and of
the individual are one, he freed men’s souls from spiritual bondage; he freed them to mutual
helpfulness. Henceforth no man of any race, either in the North or in the South, need feel
constrained to fear or hate his brother.

By the same token that Lincoln made America free, he pushed back the boundaries of
freedom everywhere, gave the spirit of liberty a wider influence throughout the world, and
reestablished the dignity of man as man.
By the same act that freed my race, he said to the civilized and uncivilized world that
man everywhere must be free, and that man everywhere must be enlightened, and the
Lincoln spirit of freedom and fair play will never cease to spread and grow in power till
throughout the world all men shall know the truth, and the truth shall make them free.
Lincoln in his day was wise enough to recognize that which is true in the present and
for all time: that in a state of slavery and ignorance man renders the lowest and most costly
form of service to his fellows. In a state of freedom and enlightenment he renders the
highest and most helpful form of service.
The world is fast learning that of all forms of slavery there is none that is so harmful
and degrading as that form of slavery which tempts one human being to hate another by
reason of his race or color. One man cannot hold another man down in the ditch without
remaining down in the ditch with him. One who goes through life with his eyes closed
against all that is good in another race is weakened and circumscribed, as one who fights
in a battle with one hand tied behind him. Lincoln was in the truest sense great because he
unfettered himself. He climbed up out of the valley, where his vision was narrowed and
weakened by the fog and miasma, onto the mountain top, where in a pure and unclouded
atmosphere he could see the truth which enabled him to rate all men at their true worth.
Growing out of this anniversary season and atmosphere, may there crystallize a resolve
throughout the nation than on such a mountain the American people will strive to live.
We owe, then, to Lincoln physical freedom, moral freedom, and yet this is not all. There
is a debt of gratitude which we as individuals, no matter of what race or nation, must
recognize as due Abraham Lincoln—not for what he did as chief executive of the nation,
but for what he did as a man. In his rise from the most abject poverty and ignorance to a
position of high usefulness and power, he taught the world one of the greatest of all lessons.
In fighting his own battle up from obscurity and squalor, he fought the battle of every other
individual and race that is down, and so helped to pull up every other human who was
down. People so often forget that by every inch that the lowest man crawls up he makes it
easier for every other man to get up. Today, throughout the world, because Lincoln lived,
struggled, and triumphed, every boy who is ignorant, is in poverty, is despised or
discouraged, holds his head a little higher. His heart beats a little faster, his ambition to do
something and be something is a little stronger, because Lincoln blazed the way.
To my race, the life of Abraham Lincoln has its special lesson at this point in our career.
In so far as his life emphasizes patience, long suffering, sincerity, naturalness, dogged
determination, and courage—courage to avoid the superficial, courage to persistently seek
the substance instead of the shadow—it points the road for my people to travel.
As a race we are learning, I believe, in an increasing degree that the best way for us to
honor the memory of our Emancipator is by seeking to imitate him. Like Lincoln, the Negro
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race should seek to be simple, without bigotry and without ostentation. There is great power
in simplicity. We as a race should, like Lincoln, have moral courage to be what we are, and
not pretend to be what we are not. We should keep in mind that no one can degrade us
except ourselves; that if we are worthy, no influence can defeat us. Like other races, the
Negro will often meet obstacles, often be sorely tried and tempted; but we must keep in
mind that freedom, in the broadest and highest sense, has never been a bequest; it has been
a conquest.
In the final test, the success of our race will be in proportion to the service that it renders
to the world. In the long run, the badge of service is the badge of sovereignty.
With all his other elements of strength, Abraham Lincoln possessed in the highest
degree patience and, as I have said, courage. The highest form of courage is not always
that exhibited on the battlefield in the midst of the blare of trumpets and the waving of
banners. The highest courage is of the Lincoln kind. It is the same kind of courage, made
possible by the new life and the new possibilities furnished by Lincoln’s Proclamation,
displayed by thousands of men and women of my race every year who are going out from
Tuskegee and other Negro institutions in the South to lift up their fellows. When they go,
often into lonely and secluded districts, with little thought of salary, with little thought of
personal welfare, no drums beat, no banners fly, no friends stand by to cheer them on; but
these brave young souls who are erecting schoolhouses, creating school systems,
prolonging school terms, teaching the people to buy homes, build houses, and live decent
lives are fighting the battles of this country just as truly and bravely as any persons who go
forth to fight battles against a foreign foe.
In paying my tribute of respect to the Great Emancipator of my race, I desire to say a
word here and now in behalf of an element of brave and true white men of the South who,
though they saw in Lincoln’s policy the ruin of all they believed in and hoped for, have
loyally accepted the results of the Civil War, and are today working with a courage few
people in the North can understand to uplift the Negro in the South and complete the
emancipation that Lincoln began. I am tempted to say that it certainly required as high a
degree of courage for men of the type of Robert E. Lee and John B. Gordon to accept the
results of the war in the manner and spirit in which they did, as that which Grant and
Sherman displayed in fighting the physical battles that saved the Union.
Lincoln was also a Southern man by birth, but he was one of those white men, of whom
there is a large and growing class, who resented the idea that in order to assert and maintain
the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race it was necessary that another group of humanity
should be kept in ignorance.
Lincoln was not afraid or ashamed to come into contact with the lowly of all races. His
reputation and social position were not of such a transitory and transparent kind that he was
afraid that he would lose them by being just and kind, even to a man of dark skin. I always
pity from the bottom of my heart any man who feels that somebody else must be kept down
or in ignorance in order that he may appear great by comparison. It requires no courage for
a strong man to kick a weak one down.
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Lincoln lives today because he had the courage which made him refuse to hate the man
at the South or the man at the North when they did not agree with him. He had the courage
as well as the patience and foresight to suffer in silence, to be misunderstood, to be abused,
to refuse to revile when reviled. For he knew that, if he was right, the ridicule of today
would be the applause of tomorrow. He knew, too, that at some time in the distant future
our nation would repent of the folly of cursing our public servants while they live and
blessing them only when they die. In this connection I cannot refrain from suggesting the
question to the millions of voices raised today in his praise: “Why did you not say it
yesterday?” Yesterday, when one word of approval and gratitude would have meant so
much to him in strengthening his hand and heart.
As we recall tonight his deeds and words, we can do so with grateful hearts and strong
faith in the future for the spread of righteousness. The civilization of the world is going
forward, not backward. Here and there for a little season of progress of mankind may seem
to halt of tarry by the wayside, or even appear to slide backward, but the trend is ever
onward and upward, and will be until someone can invent and enforce a law to stop the
progress of civilization. In goodness and liberality the world moves forward. It goes
forward beneficently, but it moves forward relentlessly. In the last analysis the forces of
nature are behind the moral progress of the world, and these forces will crush into powder
any group of humanity that resists this progress.
As we gather here, brothers all, in common joy and thanksgiving for the life of Lincoln,
may I not ask that you, the worthy representatives of seventy millions of white Americans,
join heart and hand with the ten millions of black Americans—these ten millions who speak
your tongue, profess your religion—who have never lifted their voices or hands except in
defense of their country’s honor and their country’s flag—and swear eternal fealty to the
memory and the traditions of the sainted Lincoln? I repeat, may we not join with your race,
and let all of us here highly resolve that justice, good will, and peace shall be the motto of
or lives? If this be true, in the highest sense Lincoln shall not have lived and died in vain.
And, finally, gathering inspiration and encouragement from this hour and Lincoln’s
life, I pledge to you and to the nation that my race, in so far as I can speak for it, which in
the past, whether in ignorance or intelligence, whether in slavery or in freedom, has always
been true to the Stars and Stripes and to the highest and best interests of this country, will
strive to so deport itself that it shall reflect nothing but the highest credit upon the whole
people in the North and in the South.

17

Address on Lincoln’s 200th Birthday
BARACK OBAMA
On the 200th anniversary of Lincoln’s birthday—February 12, 2009—President Barack
Obama (b. 1961), newly inaugurated, made these remarks at Lincoln’s resting place of
Springfield, Illinois. Why does President Obama emphasize “Lincoln the man” in his
remarks? What lesson(s) does Lincoln as a man have to teach us? Note the theme of
“union” in the speech. What is “union,” and how can it be achieved? Do you find President
Obama’s discussion of union persuasive? Why or why not?
It is wonderful to be back in Springfield, the city where I got my start in elected office,
where I served for nearly a decade, and where I launched my candidacy for President two
years ago, this week—on the steps of the Old State Capitol where Abraham Lincoln served
and prepared for the presidency.
It was here, nearly one hundred and fifty years ago, that the man whose life we are
celebrating today bid farewell to this city he had come to call his own. On a platform at a
train station not far from where we’re gathered, Lincoln turned to the crowd that had come
to see him off, and said, “To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe everything.”
Being here tonight, surrounded by all of you, I share his sentiments.
But looking out at this room, full of so many who did so much for me, I’m also reminded
of what Lincoln once said to a favor-seeker who claimed it was his efforts that made the
difference in the election. Lincoln asked him, “So you think you made me President?”
“Yes,” the man replied, “under Providence, I think I did.” “Well,” said Lincoln, “it’s a
pretty mess you've got me into. But I forgive you.”
It is a humbling task, marking the bicentennial of our 16th President’s birth—humbling
for me in particular, I think, for the presidency of this singular figure in so many ways
made my own story possible.
Here in Springfield, it is easier, perhaps, to reflect on Lincoln the man rather than the
marble giant, before Gettysburg and Antietam, Fredericksburg and Bull Run, before
emancipation was proclaimed and the captives were set free. In 1854, Lincoln was simply
a Springfield lawyer, who’d served just a single term in Congress. Possibly in his law
office, his feet on a cluttered desk, his sons playing around him, his clothes a bit too small
to fit his uncommon frame, he put some thoughts on paper for what purpose we do not
know:
“The legitimate object of government,” he wrote, “is to do for the people what needs to
be done, but which they can not, by individual effort, do at all, or do so well, by
themselves.”

To do for the people what needs to be done but which they cannot do on their own. It is
a simple statement. But it answers a central question of Abraham Lincoln’s life. Why did
he land on the side of union? What was it that made him so unrelenting in pursuit of victory
that he was willing to test the Constitution he ultimately preserved? What was it that led
this man to give his last full measure of devotion so that our nation might endure?
These are not easy questions to answer, and I cannot know if I am right. But I suspect
that his devotion to union came not from a belief that government always had the answer.
It came not from a failure to understand our individual rights and responsibilities. This
rugged rail-splitter, born in a log cabin of pioneer stock; who cleared a path through the
woods as a boy; who lost a mother and a sister to the rigors of frontier life; who taught
himself all he knew—this man, our first Republican President, knew, better than anyone,
what it meant to pull yourself up by your bootstraps. He understood that strain of personal
liberty and self-reliance at the heart of the American experience.
But he also understood something else. He recognized that while each of us must do our
part, work as hard as we can, and be as responsible as we can—in the end, there are certain
things we cannot do on our own. There are certain things we can only do together. There
are certain things only a union can do.
Only a union could harness the courage of our pioneers to settle the American west,
which is why he passed a Homestead Act giving a tract of land to anyone seeking a stake
in our growing economy.
Only a union could foster the ingenuity of our farmers, which is why he set up landgrant colleges that taught them how to make the most of their land while giving their
children an education that let them dream the American dream.
Only a union could speed our expansion and connect our coasts with a transcontinental
railroad, and so, even in the midst of civil war, he built one. He fueled new enterprises with
a national currency, spurred innovation, and ignited America’s imagination with a national
academy of sciences, believing we must, as he put it, add “the fuel of interest to the fire of
genius in the discovery . . . of new and useful things.” And on this day, that is also the
bicentennial of Charles Darwin’s birth, let us renew that commitment to science and
innovation once more.
Only a union could serve the hopes of every citizen—to knock down the barriers to
opportunity and give each and every person the chance to pursue the American dream.
Lincoln understood what Washington understood when he led farmers, craftsmen, and
shopkeepers to rise up against an empire. What Roosevelt understood when he lifted us
from Depression, built an arsenal of democracy, and created the largest middle-class in
history with the GI Bill. It’s what Kennedy understood when he sent us to the moon.
All these presidents recognized that America is—and always has been—more than a
band of thirteen colonies, more than a bunch of Yankees and Confederates, more than a
collection of Red States and Blue States. We are the United States of America and there
19

isn’t any dream beyond our reach, any obstacle that can stand in our way, when we
recognize that our individual liberty is served, not negated, by a recognition of the common
good.
That is the spirit we are called to show once more. The challenges we face are very
different now. Two wars, and an economic crisis unlike any we have seen in our lifetime.
Jobs have been lost. Pensions are gone. Families’ dreams have been endangered. Health
care costs are exploding. Schools are falling short. And we have an energy crisis that is
hampering our economy, threatening our planet, and enriching our adversaries.
And yet, while our challenges may be new, they did not come about overnight.
Ultimately, they result from a failure to meet the test that Lincoln set. To be sure, there
have been times in our history when our government has misjudged what we can do by
individual effort alone, and what we can only do together; when it has done things that
people can—or should—do for themselves. Our welfare system, for example, too often
dampened individual initiative, discouraging people from taking responsibility for their
own upward mobility. With respect to education, we have all too frequently lost sight of
the role of parents, rather than government, in cultivating a thirst for knowledge and
instilling those qualities of a good character—hard work, discipline, and integrity—that are
so important to educational achievement and professional success.
But in recent years, we’ve seen the pendulum swing too far in the opposite direction. It’s
a philosophy that says every problem can be solved if only government would step out of
the way; that if government were just dismantled, divvied up into tax breaks, and handed
out to the wealthiest among us, it would somehow benefit us all. Such knee-jerk disdain
for government—this constant rejection of any common endeavor—cannot rebuild our
levees or our roads or our bridges. It cannot refurbish our schools or modernize our health
care system; lead to the next medical discovery or yield the research and technology that
will spark a clean energy economy.
Only a nation can do these things. Only by coming together, all of us, and expressing
that sense of shared sacrifice and responsibility—for ourselves and one another—can we
do the work that must be done in this country. That is the very definition of being American.
It is only by rebuilding our economy and fostering the conditions of growth that willing
workers can find a job, companies can find capital, and the entrepreneurial spirit that is the
key to our competitiveness can flourish. It is only by unleashing the potential of alternative
fuels that we will lower our energy bills and raise our industries’ sights, make our nation
safer and our planet cleaner. It is only by remaking our schools for the 21st century that
our children will get those good jobs so they can make of their lives what they will. It is
only by coming together to do what people need done that we will, in Lincoln’s words,
“lift artificial weights from all shoulders [and give] all an unfettered start, and a fair chance,
in the race of life.”
That is what is required of us—now and in the years ahead. We will be remembered for
what we choose to make of this moment. And when posterity looks back on our time, as
20

we are looking back on Lincoln’s, I do not want it said that we saw an economic crisis, but
did not stem it. That we saw our schools decline and our bridges crumble, but did not
rebuild them. That the world changed in the 21st century, but America did not lead it. That
we were consumed with small things when we were called to do great things. Instead, let
them say that this generation—our generation—of Americans rose to the moment and gave
America a new birth of freedom and opportunity in our time.
These are trying days and they will grow tougher in the months to come. There will be
moments when our doubts rise and our hopes recede. But let’s always remember that we,
as a people, have been here before. There were times when our revolution itself seemed
altogether improbable, when the union was all but lost, and fascism seemed set to prevail.
And yet, what earlier generations discovered—what we must rediscover right now—is that
it is precisely when we are in the deepest valley, precisely when the climb is steepest, that
Americans relearn how to take the mountaintop. Together. As one nation. As one people.
That is how we will beat back our present dangers. That is how we will surpass what trials
may come. And that is how we will do what Lincoln called on us to do, and “nobly save .
. . the last best hope of earth.” Thank you, God Bless you, and may God Bless America.

21

The Career of
Abraham Lincoln

A Timeline of Abraham Lincoln
1809: February 12, Born in Kentucky.
1834: August 4th, elected to the Illinois House of Representatives as a representative for
Sangamon County.
1836: August 1st, Lincoln elected to the Illinois legislature again.
1838: January 27th, Lincoln gives address to the Springfield Young Men’s Lyceum on
“The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions.”
1838: August 6th, Lincoln elected to the Illinois legislature for the third time.
1842: November 4th, Lincoln and Mary Todd are married.
1846: August 3rd, elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.
1854: October 16th, Lincoln gives Peoria speech on his opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska
Act.
1857: June 26th, Lincoln gives speech in Springfield, IL, against the Dred Scott decision.
1858: June 16th, Lincoln gives his “House Divided” speech in Springfield, IL, to the
Illinois State Republican Convention after accepting the Republican nomination to run
against Stephen A. Douglas for his U.S. Senate seat.
1860: February 27th, gives Cooper Union address on slavery and the founders of the
Constitution in New York, New York.
1860: May 18th, wins Republican nomination for president.
1860: November 6th, Lincoln elected as 16th President of the United States and first
Republican President.
1860: December 20th, South Carolina secedes from the Union in response.
1861: February 9th, The South sets up the Confederate States, and elects Jefferson Davis
their president. By this time, South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia,
Louisiana, and Texas had already seceded. They would soon be followed by Virginia,
Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina in the next three months.
1861: March 4th, Lincoln’s inauguration, gives First Inaugural Address.
1861: April 12th, Confederates fire on Fort Sumter, beginning the Civil War.

23

THE CAREER OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
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1861: April 15th, President Lincoln calls forth “the Militia of the several States of the
Union to the aggregate number of seventy-five thousand.” He also convenes Congress to
meet in extra session on July 4th.
1861: July 4th, Lincoln’s war message communicated to Congress as an official
government document.
1862: August 22nd, Lincoln writes “I would save the Union” response letter to the New
York Tribune editorial. It was published on August 25th.
1863: January 1st, Lincoln issues the final Emancipation Proclamation declaring slaves
held in the states in rebellion free.
1863: July 1st-3rd, The Confederate invasion of Pennsylvania under General Robert E. Lee
is defeated by General Meade at Gettysburg.
1863: July 30th, Issues the Order of Retaliation, punishing the South for their treatment of
black Union soldiers.
1863: August 10th, Lincoln meets with abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass, who pushes
for the full equality among Union troops. This would be the first of many visits by
Douglass to the White House.
1863: November 19th, Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address at the ceremony dedicating
the battlefield as a National Cemetery.
1863: December 8th, The President issues a Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction,
a plan to restore the Union.
1864: March 12th, Ulysses S. Grant is appointed by Lincoln as General-in-Chief of all the
federal armies.
1864: June 8th, Lincoln is nominated for a second term as president by a coalition of
Republicans and War Democrats.
1864: August 31st, Lincoln makes a speech to the 148th Ohio Regiment, reiterating his
thoughts from the Gettysburg Address.
1864: November 8th, Lincoln is re-elected as president, winning 212 of the 233 electoral
votes and 55 percent of the popular vote from the states that remained in the Union.
1864: December 21st, Sherman reaches Savannah, completing his “March to the Sea” and
leaving a large path of destruction of the South’s resources throughout Georgia.
1865: March 4th, After winning re-election, Lincoln delivers his Second Inaugural
Address.
24

A Timeline of Abraham Lincoln
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1865: April 9th, At Appomattox Court House in Virginia, Lee agrees to Grant’s terms of
surrender, officially ending the Civil War.
1865: April 11th, Lincoln makes his last public speech, focusing on the problems of
Reconstruction.
1865: April 14th, Lincoln is shot by John Wilkes Booth while attending the play “Our
American Cousin” at Ford’s Theatre in Washington’s Penn Quarter.
1865: April 15th, Lincoln dies at 7:22 in the morning at the Peterson Boarding House in
Washington, DC.
1865: April 19th, A funeral service is held for Lincoln at the White House, with thousands
of Americans watching the procession.
1865: April 21st, Lincoln’s funeral train departs, traveling the country for 12 days until it
reaches Lincoln’s final resting place in Springfield, Illinois.

25

Young Lincoln

The Kentucky Home
from Four Great Americans
JAMES BALDWIN
This story of Lincoln’s early life was included in educator James Baldwin’s (1841-1925)
1897 collection Four Great Americans: Washington, Franklin, Webster, Lincoln—A Book
for Young Americans. This selection tells the story of Lincoln’s humble beginnings in a
small one-room cabin on a farm in central Kentucky. Lincoln’s parents—Thomas and
Nancy Lincoln—moved to the farm in 1808, and Lincoln lived there until the age of seven
when his family left for Indiana. Two years later, his mother died of milk-sickness, an
illness caused by drinking contaminated milk. The next year, Thomas married Sarah Bush
Johnson, a widow with three children.
How did these early hardships affect Lincoln, in Baldwin’s telling? Lincoln himself
cautioned his biographers of making much of his early life: “It is great folly to attempt to
make anything out of my early life. It can all be condensed to a single sentence, and that
sentence you will find in Gray’s Elegy: ‘The short and simple annals of the poor.’” Do you
agree with Lincoln? Describe Lincoln’s childhood education: What kinds of books did he
read? How might they have influenced him? In particular, what does the example of
George Washington mean to Lincoln?
Not far from Hodgenville, in Kentucky, there once lived a man whose name was Thomas
Lincoln. This man had built for himself a little log cabin by the side of a brook, where there
was an ever-flowing spring of water.
There was but one room in this cabin. On the side next to the brook there was a low
doorway; and at one end there was a large fireplace, built of rough stones and clay.
The chimney was very broad at the bottom and narrow at the top. It was made of clay,
with flat stones and slender sticks laid around the outside to keep it from falling apart.
In the wall, on one side of the fireplace, there was a square hole for a window. But there
was no glass in this window. In the summer it was left open all the time. In cold weather a
deerskin, or a piece of coarse cloth, was hung over it to keep out the wind and the snow.
At night, or on stormy days, the skin of a bear was hung across the doorway; for there
was no door on hinges to be opened and shut.
There was no ceiling to the room. But the inmates of the cabin, by looking up, could
see the bare rafters and the rough roof-boards, which Mr. Lincoln himself had split and
hewn.
There was no floor, but only the bare ground that had been smoothed and beaten until
it was as level and hard as pavement.
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THE CAREER OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
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For chairs there were only blocks of wood and a rude bench on one side of the fireplace.
The bed was a little platform of poles, on which were spread the furry skins of wild animals,
and a patchwork quilt of homespun goods.
In this poor cabin, on the 12th of February, 1809, a baby boy was born. There was
already one child in the family—a girl, two years old, whose name was Sarah.
The little boy grew and became strong like other babies, and his parents named him
Abraham, after his grandfather, who had been killed by the Indians many years before.
When he was old enough to run about, he liked to play under the trees by the cabin
door. Sometimes he would go with his little sister into the woods and watch the birds and
the squirrels.
He had no playmates. He did not know the meaning of toys or playthings. But he was
a happy child and had many pleasant ways.
Thomas Lincoln, the father, was a kind-hearted man, very strong and brave. Sometimes
he would take the child on his knee and tell him strange, true stories of the great forest, and
of the Indians and the fierce beasts that roamed among the woods and hills.
For Thomas Lincoln had always lived on the wild frontier; and he would rather hunt
deer and other game in the forest than do anything else. Perhaps this is why he was so poor.
Perhaps this is why he was content to live in the little log cabin with so few of the comforts
of life.
But Nancy Lincoln, the young mother, did not complain. She, too, had grown up among
the rude scenes of the backwoods. She had never known better things.
And yet she was by nature refined and gentle; and people who knew her said that she
was very handsome. She was a model housekeeper, too; and her poor log cabin was the
neatest and best-kept house in all that neighborhood. . . .
There was still another thing that she could do—she could read; and she read all the
books that she could get hold of. She taught her husband the letters of the alphabet; and she
showed him how to write his name. For Thomas Lincoln had never gone to school, and he
had never learned how to read.
As soon as little Abraham Lincoln was old enough to understand, his mother read
stories to him from the Bible. Then, while he was still very young, she taught him to read
the stories for himself.
The neighbors thought it a wonderful thing that so small a boy could read. There were
very few of them who could do as much. Few of them thought it of any great use to learn
how to read.

SCHOOL AND BOOKS
Just how Abraham Lincoln stood in his classes I do not know; but I must believe that he
studied hard and did everything as well as he could. In the arithmetic which he used, he
wrote these lines:
“Abraham Lincoln,
His hand and pen,
He will be good,
But God knows when.”
In a few weeks, Azel Dorsey’s school came to a close; and Abraham Lincoln was again
as busy as ever about his father’s farm. After that he attended school only two or three short
terms. If all his school days were put together they would not make a twelve-month.
But he kept on reading and studying at home. His stepmother said of him: “He read
everything he could lay his hands on. When he came across a passage that struck him, he
would write it down on boards, if he had no paper, and keep it until he had got paper. Then
he would copy it, look at it, commit it to memory, and repeat it.”
Among the books that he read were the Bible, the Pilgrim’s Progress, and the poems
of Robert Burns. One day he walked a long distance to borrow a book of a farmer. This
book was Weems’s Life of Washington. He read as much as he could while walking home.
By that time it was dark, and so he sat down by the chimney and read by fire light until
bedtime. Then he took the book to bed with him in the loft, and read by the light of a tallow
candle.
In an hour the candle burned out. He laid the book in a crevice between two of the logs
of the cabin, so that he might begin reading again as soon as it was daylight.
But in the night a storm came up. The rain was blown in, and the book was wet through
and through.
In the morning, when Abraham awoke, he saw what had happened. He dried the leaves
as well as he could, and then finished reading the book.
As soon as he had eaten his breakfast, he hurried to carry the book to its owner. He
explained how the accident had happened.
“Mr. Crawford,” he said, “I am willing to pay you for the book. I have no money; but,
if you will let me, I will work for you until I have made its price.”
Mr. Crawford thought that the book was worth seventy-five cents, and that Abraham’s
work would be worth about twenty-five cents a day. And so the lad helped the farmer
gather corn for three days, and thus became the owner of the delightful book.
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THE CAREER OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
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He read the story of Washington many times over. He carried the book with him to the
field, and read it while he was following the plow.
From that time, Washington was the one great hero whom he admired. Why could not
he model his own life after that of Washington? Why could not he also be a doer of great
things for his country?

30

A Stepmother’s Recollection
WILLIAM H. HERNDON
Sarah Bush Lincoln (1788–1869), the second wife of Thomas Lincoln, was much beloved
by her stepson, Abraham. Although illiterate herself, she encouraged his education and
supported him in his love of books and learning. One of the last things Lincoln did before
leaving Illinois for the White House was to visit “mama,” as he always called her. This
recollection of Lincoln is taken from an interview Lincoln’s Springfield law partner
William Herndon (1818–91) conducted with Sarah on September 8, 1865, at her home
eight miles south of Charleston, Illinois. It was later included in his 1889 biography,
Herndon’s Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life, coauthored with Jesse W. Weik (1857–
1930).
Compare this recollection with Baldwin’s story above. How are they similar? How are
they different? What was Lincoln like as a stepson, student, and friend, according to Sarah?
What things did he care for most?
Abe was about nine years of age when I landed in Indiana. The country was wild, and
desolate. Abe was a good boy; he didn’t like physical labor, was diligent for knowledge,
wished to know, and if pains and labor would get it, he was sure to get it. He was the best
boy I ever saw. He read all the books he could lay his hands on. I can’t remember dates nor
names, am about seventy-five years of age; Abe read the Bible some, though not as much
as said; he sought more congenial books suitable for his age. I think newspapers were had
in Indiana as early as 1824 and up to 1830 when we moved to Illinois. Abe was a constant
reader of them. I am sure of this for the years of 1827-28-29-30. The name of the Louisville
Journal seems to sound like one.
Abe read history papers and other books, can’t name any one, have forgotten. Abe had
no particular religion, didn’t think of that question at that time, if he ever did. He never
talked about it. He read diligently, studied in the daytime, didn’t after night much, went to
bed early, got up early, and then read, eat his breakfast, got to work in the field with the
men. Abe read all the books he could lay his hands on, and when he came across a passage
that struck him, he would write it down on boards if he had no paper and keep it there till
he did get paper, then he would rewrite it, look at it, repeat it. He had a copybook, a kind
of scrapbook, in which he put down all things and then preserved them. He ciphered on
boards when he had no paper or no slate, and when the board would get too black, he would
shave it off with a drawing knife and go on again. When he had paper, he put his lines
down on it. His copybook is here now or was lately.
Abe, when old folks were at our house, was a silent and attentive observer, never
speaking or asking questions till they were gone, and then he must understand everything,
even to the smallest thing, minutely and exactly; he would then repeat it over to himself
again and again, sometimes in one form and then in another, and when it was fixed in his
mind to suit him, he became easy and he never lost that fact or his understanding of it.
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THE CAREER OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
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Sometimes he seemed perturbed to give expression to his ideas and got mad, almost, as
one who couldn’t explain plainly what he wanted to convey.
He would hear sermons preached, come home, take the children out, get on a stump or
log, and almost repeat it word for word. He made other speeches, such as interested him
and the children. His father had to make him quit sometimes, as he quit his own work to
speak and made the other children as well as the men quit their work. As a usual thing Mr.
Lincoln never made Abe quit reading to do anything if he could avoid it. He would do it
himself first. Mr. Lincoln could read a little and could scarcely write his name; hence he
wanted, as he himself felt the uses and necessities of educating, his boy Abraham to learn,
and he encouraged him to do it in all ways he could.
Abe was a good boy, and I can say what scarcely one woman, a mother, can say in a
thousand and it is this: Abe never gave me a cross word or look and never refused in fact,
or even in appearance, to do anything I requested him. I never gave him a cross word in all
my life. He was kind to everybody and to everything and always accommodated others if
he could, would do so willingly if he could. His mind and mine, what little I had, seemed
to run together, more in the same channel. Abe could easily learn and long remember, and
when he did learn anything he learned it well and thoroughly.
What he thus learned he stored away in his memory, which was extremely good. What
he learned and stored away was well defined in his own mind, repeated over and over again
and again, till it was so defined and fixed firmly and permanently in his memory. He rose
early, went to bed early, not reading much after night. Abe was a moderate eater, and I now
have no remembrance of his special dish; he sat down and ate what was set before him,
making no complaint; he seemed careless about this. I cooked his meals for nearly fifteen
years. He always had good health, never was sick, was very careful of his person, was
tolerably neat and clean only, cared nothing for clothes, so that they were clean and neat,
further cut no figure with him, nor color, new stuff, nor material; was careless about these
things. He was more fleshy in Indiana than ever in Illinois.
I saw him every year or two. He was here after he was elected President of the United
States. As company would come to our house Abe was a silent listener, wouldn’t speak,
would sometimes take a book and retire aloft, go to the stable or field or woods, and read.
Abe was always fond of fun, sport, wit, and jokes. He was sometimes very witty indeed.
He never drank whisky or other strong drink, was temperate in all things, too much so, I
thought sometimes. He never told me a lie in his life, never evaded, never quarreled, never
dodged nor turned a corner to avoid any chastisement or other responsibility. He never
swore or used profane language in my presence nor in others’ that I now remember of. He
duly reverenced old age, loved those best about his own age, played with those under his
age; he listened to the aged, argued with his equals, but played with the children. He loved
animals generally and treated them kindly; he loved children well, very well. There seemed
to be nothing unusual in his love for animals or his own kind, though he treated everybody
and everything kindly, humanely.

Abe didn’t care much for crowds of people; he chose his own company, which was
always good. He was not very fond of girls, as he seemed to me. He sometimes attended
church. He would repeat the sermon over again to the children. The sight of such a thing
amused all and did especially tickle the children. When Abe was reading, my husband took
particular care not to disturb him, would let him read on and on till Abe quit of his own
accord. He was dutiful to me always; he loved me truly, I think. I had a son John who was
raised with Abe. Both were good boys, but I must say, both now being dead, that Abe was
the best boy I ever saw or ever expect to see. I wish I had died when my husband did.
I did not want Abe to run for President, did not want him elected, was afraid somehow
or other, felt it in my heart that something would happen to him, and when he came down
to see me after he was elected President I still felt that something told me that something
would befall Abe and that I should see him no more. Abe and his father are in Heaven, I
have no doubt, and I want to go to them, go where they are. God bless Abraham.

33

Letter to J. W. Fell
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Jesse W. Fell (1808–87) was an Illinois businessman and close friend of Lincoln. As
Lincoln became active in national politics in the mid-1850s, Fell convinced him that
writing a short autobiographical sketch would boost his chances of becoming a serious
presidential candidate. After much prodding, Lincoln agreed to pen the short piece below
on December 20, 1859, which gives a brief account of his early years. Lincoln describes
his frontier origins, his selection as captain in the Black Hawk War (an 1832 conflict
between Illinois and Michigan settlers and the Native Americans), his legal and political
career in Springfield, and his return to political life, spurred by the crisis over slavery’s
expansion into the Western territories. He ends with a humorous and self-deprecating
description of his ungainly physical appearance.
Why might Lincoln want this sketch to be “modest?” Why does he emphasize certain
events in his life (e.g., his military service, his political loss in 1832)? Why does he end
with a humorous aside about his physical appearance? What does this sketch tell you about
Lincoln as a man and political leader? Imagine that you were a voter in the 1850s, how
would you react to Lincoln’s account of his life? Would you want to vote for him? Why or
why not? Considering both Baldwin’s story and Sarah’s remembrance, what personal
qualities and circumstances do you think were most important to Lincoln’s rise to the
presidency?
My dear Sir: Herewith is a little sketch, as you requested. There is not much of it, for the
reason, I suppose, that there is not much of me. If anything be made out of it, I wish it to
be modest, and not to go beyond the material. If it were thought necessary to incorporate
anything from any of my speeches, I suppose there would be no objection. Of course it
must not appear to have been written by myself.
Yours very truly,
A. Lincoln.
I was born February 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky. My parents were both born
in Virginia, of undistinguished families—second families, perhaps I should say. My
mother, who died in my tenth year, was of a family of the name of Hanks, some of whom
now reside in Adams, and others in Macon County, Illinois. My paternal grandfather,
Abraham Lincoln, emigrated from Rockingham County, Virginia, to Kentucky about 1781
or 1782, where a year or two later he was killed by the Indians, not in battle, but by stealth,
when he was laboring to open a farm in the forest. His ancestors, who were Quakers, went
to Virginia from Berks County, Pennsylvania. An effort to identify them with the New
England family of the same name ended in nothing more definite than a similarity of
Christian names in both families, such as Enoch, Levi, Mordecai, Solomon, Abraham, and
the like.

My father, at the death of his father, was but six years of age, and he grew up literally
without education. He removed from Kentucky to what is now Spencer County, Indiana,
in my eighth year. We reached our new home about the time the State came into the Union.
It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods. There I
grew up. There were some schools, so called, but no qualification was ever required of a
teacher beyond “readin’, writin’, and cipherin’” to the rule of three. If a straggler supposed
to understand Latin happened to sojourn in the neighborhood, he was looked upon as a
wizard. There was absolutely nothing to excite ambition for education. Of course, when I
came of age I did not know much. Still, somehow, I could read, write, and cipher to the
rule of three, but that was all. I have not been to school since. The little advance I now have
upon this store of education, I have picked up from time to time under the pressure of
necessity.
I was raised to farm work, which I continued till I was twenty-two. At twenty-two I
came to Illinois, Macon County. Then I got to New Salem, at that time in Sangamon, now
in Menard County, where I remained a year as a sort of clerk in a store. Then came the
Black Hawk war; and I was elected a captain of volunteers, a success which gave me more
pleasure than any I have had since. I went the campaign, was elated, ran for the legislature
the same year (1832), and was beaten—the only time I ever have been beaten by the people.
The next and three succeeding biennial elections I was elected to the legislature. I was not
a candidate afterward. During this legislative period I had studied law, and removed to
Springfield to practice it. In 1846 I was once elected to the lower House of Congress. Was
not a candidate for reelection. From 1849 to 1854, both inclusive, practiced law more
assiduously than ever before. Always a Whig in politics: and generally on the Whig
electoral tickets, making active canvasses. I was losing interest in politics when the repeal
of the Missouri compromise aroused me again. What I have done since then is pretty well
known.
If any personal description of me is thought desirable, it may be said I am, in height,
six feet four inches, nearly; lean in flesh, weighing on an average one hundred and eighty
pounds; dark complexion, with coarse black hair and grey eyes. No other marks or brands
recollected.

35

Lyceum Address
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
One of Lincoln’s earliest published speeches, the Lyceum Address was delivered when
Lincoln was just 28 years old and newly arrived in Springfield, Illinois. A little-known
lawyer serving as a state representative, Lincoln spoke before a gathering of young men
and women on January 27, 1838 about “the perpetuation of our political institutions.”
Prompted by the murder of an abolitionist printer in Illinois two months earlier, he worried
that Americans were increasingly inclined to take the law into their own hands. In the grip
of strong passions, they were substituting vigilante justice for the justice of law.
In addition to tracing the dangerous effects of this slide into lawlessness and mob rule,
Lincoln speaks about the dangers of ambitious men. At the end, he proposes a solution:
“Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well wisher to his posterity, swear by the
blood of the Revolution, never to violate in the least particular, the laws of the country;
and never to tolerate their violation by others. . . . Let reverence for the laws . . . become
the political religion of the nation.” Well aware of the dilemma posed by unjust laws,
Lincoln nonetheless insists on law-abidingness: “bad laws, if they exist, should be repealed
as soon as possible, still while they continue in force, for the sake of example, they should
be religiously observed.” Such “reverence for the constitution and laws,” Lincoln argues,
is one of the new pillars of the temple of liberty, indispensable for preserving our political
institutions and retaining the attachment of the citizens, now that the founding generation
had gone to rest. Only an attached and law-revering citizenry. Lincoln suggests, can
withstand the threats to liberty posed by men of colossal ambition, those who belong “to
the family of the lion, or the tribe of the eagle,” men who, in order to achieve distinction,
would as soon enslave free men as emancipate slaves.
What is “reverence for the laws”? Does it differ from fear of punishment? Is reverence
(or political religion) necessary to the preservation of our political institutions? Is it
sufficient for binding citizens to the Republic? Is it sufficient for containing people of great
ambition? If not, what else might be needed? Is Lincoln right that disobedience always
undermines respect for law? In a democracy (where laws are arrived at by majority rule),
must we obey bad laws in order not to undercut good laws or law itself? What is the relation
between “political religion” (reverence for the laws) and religion as most citizens know it
(reverence for God)? What happens if the two conflict? Is Lincoln right to worry about
men of colossal political ambitions? What light might his reflections on these people shed
on Lincoln’s understanding of his own ambitions?
As a subject for the remarks of the evening, the perpetuation of our political institutions, is
selected.
In the great journal of things happening under the sun, we, the American People, find
our account running, under date of the nineteenth century of the Christian era.—We find
ourselves in the peaceful possession, of the fairest portion of the earth, as regards extent of
36

territory, fertility of soil, and salubrity of climate. We find ourselves under the government
of a system of political institutions, conducing more essentially to the ends of civil and
religious liberty, than any of which the history of former times tells us. We, when mounting
the stage of existence, found ourselves the legal inheritors of these fundamental blessings.
We toiled not in the acquirement or establishment of them—they are a legacy bequeathed
us, by a once hardy, brave, and patriotic, but now lamented and departed race of ancestors.
Theirs was the task (and nobly they performed it) to possess themselves, and through
themselves, us, of this goodly land; and to uprear upon its hills and its valleys, a political
edifice of liberty and equal rights; ’tis ours only, to transmit these, the former, unprofaned
by the foot of an invader; the latter, undecayed by the lapse of time and untorn by
usurpation, to the latest generation that fate shall permit the world to know. This task of
gratitude to our fathers, justice to ourselves, duty to posterity, and love for our species in
general, all imperatively require us faithfully to perform.
How then shall we perform it?—At what point shall we expect the approach of danger?
By what means shall we fortify against it?—Shall we expect some transatlantic military
giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never!—All the armies of Europe, Asia
and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military
chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio,
or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years.
At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever
reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our
lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live
through all time, or die by suicide.
I hope I am over wary; but if I am not, there is, even now, something of ill-omen,
amongst us. I mean the increasing disregard for law which pervades the country; the
growing disposition to substitute the wild and furious passions, in lieu of the sober
judgment of Courts; and the worse than savage mobs, for the executive ministers of justice.
This disposition is awfully fearful in any community; and that it now exists in ours, though
grating to our feelings to admit, it would be a violation of truth, and an insult to our
intelligence, to deny. Accounts of outrages committed by mobs, form the every-day news
of the times. They have pervaded the country, from New England to Louisiana;—they are
neither peculiar to the eternal snows of the former, nor the burning suns of the latter;—they
are not the creature of climate—neither are they confined to the slave-holding, or the nonslave-holding States. Alike, they spring up among the pleasure hunting masters of Southern
slaves, and the order loving citizens of the land of steady habits.—Whatever, then, their
cause may be, it is common to the whole country.
It would be tedious, as well as useless, to recount the horrors of all of them. Those
happening in the State of Mississippi, and at St. Louis, are, perhaps, the most dangerous in
example and revolting to humanity. In the Mississippi case, they first commenced by
hanging the regular gamblers; a set of men, certainly not following for a livelihood, a very
useful, or very honest occupation; but one which, so far from being forbidden by the laws,
was actually licensed by an act of the Legislature, passed but a single year before. Next,
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negroes, suspected of conspiring to raise an insurrection, were caught up and hanged in all
parts of the State: then, white men, supposed to be leagued with the negroes; and finally,
strangers, from neighboring States, going thither on business, were, in many instances
subjected to the same fate. Thus went on this process of hanging, from gamblers to negroes,
from negroes to white citizens, and from these to strangers; till, dead men were seen
literally dangling from the boughs of trees upon every road side; and in numbers almost
sufficient, to rival the native Spanish moss of the country, as a drapery of the forest.
Turn, then, to that horror-striking scene at St. Louis. A single victim was only sacrificed
there. His story is very short; and is, perhaps, the most highly tragic, if anything of its
length, that has ever been witnessed in real life. A mulatto man, by the name of McIntosh,
was seized in the street, dragged to the suburbs of the city, chained to a tree, and actually
burned to death; and all within a single hour from the time he had been a freeman, attending
to his own business, and at peace with the world.
Such are the effects of mob law; and such as the scenes, becoming more and more
frequent in this land so lately famed for love of law and order; and the stories of which,
have even now grown too familiar, to attract any thing more, than an idle remark.
But you are, perhaps, ready to ask, “What has this to do with the perpetuation of our
political institutions?” I answer, it has much to do with it. Its direct consequences are,
comparatively speaking, but a small evil; and much of its danger consists, in the proneness
of our minds, to regard its direct, as its only consequences. Abstractly considered, the
hanging of the gamblers at Vicksburg, was of but little consequence. They constitute a
portion of population, that is worse than useless in any community; and their death, if no
pernicious example be set by it, is never matter of reasonable regret with any one. If they
were annually swept, from the stage of existence, by the plague or small pox, honest men
would, perhaps, be much profited, by the operation.—Similar too, is the correct reasoning,
in regard to the burning of the negro at St. Louis. He had forfeited his life, by the
perpetuation of an outrageous murder, upon one of the most worthy and respectable
citizens of the city; and had not he died as he did, he must have died by the sentence of the
law, in a very short time afterwards. As to him alone, it was as well the way it was, as it
could otherwise have been.—But the example in either case, was fearful.—When men take
it in their heads to day, to hang gamblers, or burn murderers, they should recollect, that, in
the confusion usually attending such transactions, they will be as likely to hang or burn
some one who is neither a gambler nor a murderer as one who is; and that, acting upon the
example they set, the mob of to-morrow, may, and probably will, hang or burn some of
them by the very same mistake. And not only so; the innocent, those who have ever set
their faces against violations of law in every shape, alike with the guilty, fall victims to the
ravages of mob law; and thus it goes on, step by step, till all the walls erected for the defense
of the persons and property of individuals, are trodden down, and disregarded. But all this
even, is not the full extent of the evil.—By such examples, by instances of the perpetrators
of such acts going unpunished, the lawless in spirit, are encouraged to become lawless in
practice; and having been used to no restraint, but dread of punishment, they thus become,
absolutely unrestrained.—Having ever regarded Government as their deadliest bane, they
make a jubilee of the suspension of its operations; and pray for nothing so much, as its total
38

annihilation. While, on the other hand, good men, men who love tranquility, who desire to
abide by the laws, and enjoy their benefits, who would gladly spill their blood in the defense
of their country; seeing their property destroyed; their families insulted, and their lives
endangered; their persons injured; and seeing nothing in prospect that forebodes a change
for the better; become tired of, and disgusted with, a Government that offers them no
protection; and are not much averse to a change in which they imagine they have nothing
to lose. Thus, then, by the operation of this mobocractic spirit, which all must admit, is
now abroad in the land, the strongest bulwark of any Government, and particularly of those
constituted like ours, may effectually be broken down and destroyed—I mean
the attachment of the People. Whenever this effect shall be produced among us; whenever
the vicious portion of population shall be permitted to gather in bands of hundreds and
thousands, and burn churches, ravage and rob provision-stores, throw printing presses into
rivers, shoot editors, and hang and burn obnoxious persons at pleasure, and with impunity;
depend on it, this Government cannot last. By such things, the feelings of the best citizens
will become more or less alienated from it; and thus it will be left without friends, or with
too few, and those few too weak, to make their friendship effectual. At such a time and
under such circumstances, men of sufficient talent and ambition will not be wanting to
seize the opportunity, strike the blow, and overturn that fair fabric, which for the last half
century, has been the fondest hope, of the lovers of freedom, throughout the world.
I know the American People are much attached to their Government;—I know they
would suffer much for its sake;—I know they would endure evils long and patiently, before
they would ever think of exchanging it for another. Yet, notwithstanding all this, if the laws
be continually despised and disregarded, if their rights to be secure in their persons and
property, are held by no better tenure than the caprice of a mob, the alienation of their
affections from the Government is the natural consequence; and to that, sooner or later, it
must come.
Here then, is one point at which danger may be expected.
The question recurs, “how shall we fortify against it?” The answer is simple. Let every
American, every lover of liberty, every well wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of
the Revolution, never to violate in the least particular, the laws of the country; and never
to tolerate their violation by others. As the patriots of seventy-six did to the support of the
Declaration of Independence, so to the support of the Constitution and Laws, let every
American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred honor;—let every man remember
that to violate the law, is to trample on the blood of his father, and to tear the character of
his own, and his children's liberty. Let reverence for the laws, be breathed by every
American mother, to the lisping babe, that prattles on her lap—let it be taught in schools,
in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in Primers, spelling books, and in
Almanacs;—let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced
in courts of justice. And, in short, let it become the political religion of the nation; and let
the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the grave and the gay, of all sexes and tongues,
and colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its altars.

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While ever a state of feeling, such as this, shall universally, or even, very generally
prevail throughout the nation, vain will be every effort, and fruitless every attempt, to
subvert our national freedom.
When I so pressingly urge a strict observance of all the laws, let me not be understood
as saying there are no bad laws, nor that grievances may not arise, for the redress of which,
no legal provisions have been made.—I mean to say no such thing. But I do mean to say,
that, although bad laws, if they exist, should be repealed as soon as possible, still while
they continue in force, for the sake of example, they should be religiously observed. So
also in unprovided cases. If such arise, let proper legal provisions be made for them with
the least possible delay; but, till then, let them, if not too intolerable, be borne with.
There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob law. In any case that arises,
as for instance, the promulgation of abolitionism, one of two positions is necessarily true;
that is, the thing is right within itself, and therefore deserves the protection of all law and
all good citizens; or, it is wrong, and therefore proper to be prohibited by legal enactments;
and in neither case, is the interposition of mob law, either necessary, justifiable, or
excusable.
But, it may be asked, why suppose danger to our political institutions? Have we not
preserved them for more than fifty years? And why may we not for fifty times as long?
We hope there is no sufficient reason. We hope all dangers may be overcome; but to
conclude that no danger may ever arise, would itself be extremely dangerous. There are
now, and will hereafter be, many causes, dangerous in their tendency, which have not
existed heretofore; and which are not too insignificant to merit attention. That our
government should have been maintained in its original form from its establishment until
now, is not much to be wondered at. It had many props to support it through that period,
which now are decayed, and crumbled away. Through that period, it was felt by all, to be
an undecided experiment; now, it is understood to be a successful one.—Then, all that
sought celebrity and fame, and distinction, expected to find them in the success of that
experiment. Their all was staked upon it:—their destiny was inseparably linked with it.
Their ambition aspired to display before an admiring world, a practical demonstration of
the truth of a proposition, which had hitherto been considered, at best no better, than
problematical; namely, the capability of a people to govern themselves. If they succeeded,
they were to be immortalized; their names were to be transferred to counties and cities, and
rivers and mountains; and to be revered and sung, and toasted through all time. If they
failed, they were to be called knaves and fools, and fanatics for a fleeting hour; then to sink
and be forgotten. They succeeded. The experiment is successful; and thousands have won
their deathless names in making it so. But the game is caught; and I believe it is true, that
with the catching, end the pleasures of the chase. This field of glory is harvested, and the
crop is already appropriated. But new reapers will arise, and they, too, will seek a field. It
is to deny, what the history of the world tells us is true, to suppose that men of ambition
and talents will not continue to spring up amongst us. And, when they do, they will as
naturally seek the gratification of their ruling passion, as others have so done before them.
The question then, is, can that gratification be found in supporting and maintaining an
40

edifice that has been erected by others? Most certainly it cannot. Many great and good men
sufficiently qualified for any task they should undertake, may ever be found, whose
ambition would inspire to nothing beyond a seat in Congress, a gubernatorial or a
presidential chair; but such belong not to the family of the lion, or the tribe of the
eagle. What! think you these places would satisfy an Alexander, a Caesar, or a
Napoleon?—Never! Towering genius distains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto
unexplored.—It sees no distinction in adding story to story, upon the monuments of fame,
erected to the memory of others. It denies that it is glory enough to serve under any chief.
It scorns to tread in the footsteps of any predecessor, however illustrious. It thirsts and
burns for distinction; and, if possible, it will have it, whether at the expense of emancipating
slaves, or enslaving freemen. Is it unreasonable then to expect, that some man possessed
of the loftiest genius, coupled with ambition sufficient to push it to its utmost stretch, will
at some time, spring up among us? And when such a one does, it will require the people to
be united with each other, attached to the government and laws, and generally intelligent,
to successfully frustrate his designs.
Distinction will be his paramount object, and although he would as willingly, perhaps
more so, acquire it by doing good as harm; yet, that opportunity being past, and nothing
left to be done in the way of building up, he would set boldly to the task of pulling down.
Here, then, is a probable case, highly dangerous, and such a one as could not have well
existed heretofore.
Another reason which once was; but which, to the same extent, is now no more, has
done much in maintaining our institutions thus far. I mean the powerful influence which
the interesting scenes of the revolution had upon the passions of the people as distinguished
from their judgment. By this influence, the jealousy, envy, and avarice, incident to our
nature, and so common to a state of peace, prosperity, and conscious strength, were, for the
time, in a great measure smothered and rendered inactive; while the deep-rooted principles
of hate, and the powerful motive of revenge, instead of being turned against each other,
were directed exclusively against the British nation. And thus, from the force of
circumstances, the basest principles of our nature, were either made to lie dormant, or to
become the active agents in the advancement of the noblest cause—that of establishing and
maintaining civil and religious liberty.
But this state of feeling must fade, is fading, has faded, with the circumstances that
produced it.
I do not mean to say, that the scenes of the revolution are now or ever will be entirely
forgotten; but that like every thing else, they must fade upon the memory of the world, and
grow more and more dim by the lapse of time. In history, we hope, they will be read of,
and recounted, so long as the bible shall be read;—but even granting that they will, their
influence cannot be what it heretofore has been. Even then, they cannot be so universally
known, nor so vividly felt, as they were by the generation just gone to rest. At the close of
that struggle, nearly every adult male had been a participator in some of its scenes. The
consequence was, that of those scenes, in the form of a husband, a father, a son or brother,
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a living history was to be found in every family— a history bearing the indubitable
testimonies of its own authenticity, in the limbs mangled, in the scars of wounds received,
in the midst of the very scenes related—a history, too, that could be read and understood
alike by all, the wise and the ignorant, the learned and the unlearned.—But those histories
are gone. They can be read no more forever. They were a fortress of strength; but, what
invading foeman could never do, the silent artillery of time has done; the leveling of its
walls. They are gone.—They were a forest of giant oaks; but the all-resistless hurricane has
swept over them, and left only, here and there, a lonely trunk, despoiled of its verdure,
shorn of its foliage; unshading and unshaded, to murmur in a few gentle breezes, and to
combat with its mutilated limbs, a few more ruder storms, then to sink, and be no more.
They were the pillars of the temple of liberty; and now, that they have crumbled away,
that temple must fall, unless we, their descendants, supply their places with other pillars,
hewn from the solid quarry of sober reason. Passion has helped us; but can do so no more.
It will in future be our enemy. Reason, cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason, must
furnish all the materials for our future support and defence.—Let those materials be
moulded into general intelligence, sound morality, and in particular, a reverence for the
constitution and laws: and, that we improved to the last; that we remained free to the last;
that we revered his name to the last; that, during his long sleep, we permitted no hostile
foot to pass over or desecrate his resting place; shall be that which to learn the last trump
shall awaken our WASHINGTON.
Upon these let the proud fabric of freedom rest, as the rock of its basis; and as truly as
has been said of the only greater institution, “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

42

Lincoln and the
Slavery Question

Excerpt from the Eulogy of Henry Clay
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
On July 6, 1852, at the Statehouse in Springfield, Abraham Lincoln delivered a stirring
eulogy for the Kentucky Senator Henry Clay (1777–1852), who Lincoln regarded as his
“beau ideal of a statesman.” From 1803 until 1848, Clay was an active statesman, serving
in the House of Representatives, the Senate, as Speaker of the House, and as Secretary of
State. He is most known for his role in brokering a series of compromises that prevented
the North and South from splitting. His most important legislative events include: the
Missouri Compromise of 1820, the Nullification Crisis, and the Compromise of 1850, for
which he was called out of retirement. Although a slave-owner, Clay favored the gradual
elimination of slavery.
How does Lincoln describe “the Great Compromiser?” What were his “leading
qualities,” and why did they make him so “rare”? In his speech, Lincoln praises Clay’s
role as preserver of the Union. What did the “Union” mean to Clay, and why did he give
so much of his life to it, according to Lincoln? What is the relationship between Union and
liberty? What does Lincoln say about Clay’s views on slavery? How can Clay be deeply
devoted to “the cause of human liberty” yet be a slave-owner? What does Lincoln say his
audience should learn from Clay’s example, and how should they act in regard to the “late
slavery question”? Why does Lincoln end the eulogy with an appeal to “Divine
Providence”?
On the fourth day of July, 1776, the people of a few feeble and oppressed colonies of Great
Britain, inhabiting a portion of the Atlantic coast of North America, publicly declared their
national independence, and made their appeal to the justice of their cause, and to the God
of battles, for the maintenance of that declaration. That people were few in numbers, and
without resources, save only their own wise heads and stout hearts. Within the first year of
that declared independence, and while its maintenance was yet problematical—while the
bloody struggle between those resolute rebels, and their haughty would-be-masters, was
still waging, of undistinguished parents, and in an obscure district of one of those colonies,
Henry Clay was born. The infant nation, and the infant child began the race of life together.
For three quarters of a century they have travelled hand in hand. They have been
companions ever. The nation has passed its perils, and is free, prosperous, and powerful.
The child has reached his manhood, his middle age, his old age, and is dead. In all that has
concerned the nation the man ever sympathized; and now the nation mourns for the man. .
..
[T]he period from the beginning of Mr. Clay’s official life, in 1803, to the end of it in
1852, is but one year short of half a century; and that the sum of all the intervals in it, will
not amount to ten years. But mere duration of time in office, constitutes the smallest part
of Mr. Clay's history. Throughout that long period, he has constantly been the most loved,
and most implicitly followed by friends, and the most dreaded by opponents, of all living
American politicians. In all the great questions which have agitated the country, and
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particularly in those great and fearful crises, the Missouri question—the Nullification
question, and the late slavery question, as connected with the newly acquired territory,
involving and endangering the stability of the Union, his has been the leading and most
conspicuous part. . . . The spell—the long enduring spell—with which the souls of men
were bound to him, is a miracle. Who can compass it? It is probably true he owed his preeminence to no one quality, but to a fortunate combination of several. He was surpassingly
eloquent; but many eloquent men fail utterly; and they are not, as a class, generally
successful. His judgment was excellent; but many men of good judgment, live and die
unnoticed. His will was indomitable; but this quality often secures to its owner nothing
better than a character for useless obstinacy. These then were Mr. Clay’s leading qualities.
No one of them is very uncommon; but all taken together are rarely combined in a single
individual; and this is probably the reason why such men as Henry Clay are so rare in the
world.
Mr. Clay’s eloquence did not consist, as many fine specimens of eloquence does [do],
of types and figures—of antithesis, and elegant arrangement of words and sentences; but
rather of that deeply earnest and impassioned tone, and manner, which can proceed only
from great sincerity and a thorough conviction, in the speaker of the justice and importance
of his cause. This it is, that truly touches the chords of sympathy; and those who heard Mr.
Clay never failed to be moved by it, or ever afterwards, forgot the impression. All his
efforts were made for practical effect. He never spoke merely to be heard. He never
delivered a Fourth of July oration, or an eulogy on an occasion like this. As a politician or
statesman, no one was so habitually careful to avoid all sectional ground. Whatever he did,
he did for the whole country. In the construction of his measures he ever carefully surveyed
every part of the field, and duly weighed every conflicting interest. Feeling, as he did, and
as the truth surely is, that the world’s best hope depended on the continued Union of these
States, he was ever jealous of, and watchful for, whatever might have the slightest tendency
to separate them.
Mr. Clay’s predominant sentiment, from first to last, was a deep devotion to the cause
of human liberty—a strong sympathy with the oppressed everywhere, and an ardent wish
for their elevation. With him, this was a primary and all controlling passion. Subsidiary to
this was the conduct of his whole life. He loved his country partly because it was his own
country, but mostly because it was a free country; and he burned with a zeal for its
advancement, prosperity and glory, because he saw in such, the advancement, prosperity
and glory, of human liberty, human right and human nature. He desired the prosperity of
his countrymen partly because they were his countrymen, but chiefly to show to the world
that freemen could be prosperous.
That his views and measures were always the wisest, needs not to be affirmed; nor
should it be, on this occasion, where so many, thinking differently, join in doing honor to
his memory. A free people, in times of peace and quiet—when pressed by no common
danger—naturally divide into parties. At such times the man who is of neither party, is
not—cannot be, of any consequence. Mr. Clay, therefore, was of a party. Taking a
prominent part, as he did, in all the great political questions of his country for the last half
century, the wisdom of his course on many, is doubted and denied by a large portion of his
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countrymen; and of such it is not now proper to speak particularly. But there are many
others, about his course upon which, there is little or no disagreement amongst intelligent
and patriotic Americans. Of these last are the War of 1812, the Missouri question,
Nullification, and the now recent compromise measures. . . .
Having been led to allude to domestic slavery so frequently already, I am unwilling to
close without referring more particularly to Mr. Clay’s views and conduct in regard to it.
He ever was on principle and in feeling, opposed to slavery. The very earliest, and one of
the latest public efforts of his life, separated by a period of more than fifty years, were both
made in favor of gradual emancipation of the slaves in Kentucky. He did not perceive, that
on a question of human right, the negroes were to be excepted from the human race. And
yet Mr. Clay was the owner of slaves. Cast into life where slavery was already widely
spread and deeply seated, he did not perceive, as I think no wise man has perceived, how
it could be at once eradicated, without producing a greater evil, even to the cause of human
liberty itself. His feeling and his judgment, therefore, ever led him to oppose both extremes
of opinion on the subject. Those who would shiver into fragments the Union of these States;
tear to tatters its now venerated constitution; and even burn the last copy of the Bible, rather
than slavery should continue a single hour, together with all their more halting
sympathizers, have received, and are receiving their just execration; and the name, and
opinions, and influence of Mr. Clay, are fully, and, as I trust, effectually and enduringly,
arrayed against them. But I would also, if I could, array his name, opinions, and influence
against the opposite extreme—against a few, but an increasing number of men, who, for
the sake of perpetuating slavery, are beginning to assail and to ridicule the white man’s
charter of freedom—the declaration that “all men are created free and equal.” So far as I
have learned, the first American, of any note, to do or attempt this, was the late John C.
Calhoun; and if I mistake not, it soon after found its way into some of the messages of the
Governors of South Carolina. . . . .
But Henry Clay is dead. His long and eventful life is closed. Our country is prosperous
and powerful; but could it have been quite all it has been, and is, and is to be, without Henry
Clay? Such a man the times have demanded, and such, in the providence of God was given
us. But he is gone. Let us strive to deserve, as far as mortals may, the continued care of
Divine Providence, trusting that, in future national emergencies, He will not fail to provide
us the instruments of safety and security.

46

Excerpt from the Peoria Speech
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Admitted to the Illinois Bar in 1837, at the age of twenty-eight, having served four terms
in the State Legislature and a single term in Congress (1846–48), Abraham Lincoln retired
from politics between 1849 and 1854 to practice law in Springfield, Illinois. But the
passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in May 1854 rekindled his political ambitions. This
act, authored by Illinois Democrat Stephen A. Douglas (1813–61), repealed the Missouri
Compromise of 1820, which prohibited slavery in the former Louisiana Territory north of
the parallel 36°30’ north. Douglas hoped that his principle of “popular sovereignty,”
which allowed settlers to decide the issue of slavery in the territories, would put slavery to
rest as a national issue.
On October 16, 1854, Lincoln and Douglas delivered competing speeches in Peoria,
Illinois. While not a direct rebuttal of Douglas, Lincoln’s remarks (here excerpted)
attacked the morality of slavery’s extension and of slavery itself. What arguments does
Lincoln make against the spread of slavery to the territories? What is his view of slavery?
If Lincoln knows slavery to be a “great evil,” why does he not favor immediate
emancipation? In thinking about this question, pay close attention to what Lincoln says
about the role of “universal” feelings in public life. What is Lincoln’s interpretation of the
Declaration of Independence? How does the principle of popular sovereignty undercut the
“sacred right of self-government,” according to Lincoln? Imagine you were in the
audience, would this speech persuade you?
The repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the propriety of its restoration, constitute the
subject of what I am about to say.
As I desire to present my own connected view of this subject, my remarks will not be,
specifically, an answer to Judge Douglas; yet, as I proceed, the main points he has presented
will arise, and will receive such respectful attention as I may be able to give them.
I wish further to say, that I do not propose to question the patriotism, or to assail the
motives of any man, or class of men; but rather to strictly confine myself to the naked
merits of the question.
I also wish to be no less than National in all the positions I may take; and whenever I
take ground which others have thought, or may think, narrow, sectional and dangerous to
the Union, I hope to give a reason, which will appear sufficient, at least to some, why I
think differently.
And, as this subject is no other, than part and parcel of the larger general question of
domestic slavery, I wish to MAKE and to KEEP the distinction between the EXISTING
institution, and the EXTENSION of it, so broad, and so clear, that no honest man can
misunderstand me, and no dishonest one, successfully misrepresent me.
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In order to get a clear understanding of what the Missouri Compromise is, a short
history of the preceding kindred subjects will perhaps be proper. When we established our
independence, we did not own, or claim, the country to which this compromise applies. . .
. We were then living under the Articles of Confederation, which were superseded by the
Constitution several years afterwards. The question of ceding these territories to the general
government was set on foot. Mr. Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence,
and otherwise a chief actor in the revolution; then a delegate in Congress; afterwards twice
President; who was, is, and perhaps will continue to be, the most distinguished politician
of our history; a Virginian by birth and continued residence, and withal, a slave-holder;
conceived the idea of taking that occasion, to prevent slavery ever going into the northwestern territory. He prevailed on the Virginia Legislature to adopt his views, and to cede
the territory, making the prohibition of slavery therein, a condition of the deed. Congress
accepted the cession, with the condition; and in the first Ordinance (which the acts of
Congress were then called) for the government of the territory, provided that slavery should
never be permitted therein. This is the famed ordinance of ’87 so often spoken of.
Thenceforward, for sixty-one years, and until in 1848, the last scrap of this territory came
into the Union as the State of Wisconsin, all parties acted in quiet obedience to this
ordinance. It is now what Jefferson foresaw and intended—the happy home of teeming
millions of free, white, prosperous people, and no slave amongst them. . . .
But now new light breaks upon us. Now congress declares this ought never to have
been; and the like of it, must never be again. The sacred right of self-government is grossly
violated by it! We even find some men, who drew their first breath, and every other breath
of their lives, under this very restriction, now live in dread of absolute suffocation, if they
should be restricted in the “sacred right” of taking slaves to Nebraska. That perfect liberty
they sigh for—the liberty of making slaves of other people—Jefferson never thought of;
their own father never thought of; they never thought of themselves, a year ago. How
fortunate for them, they did not sooner become sensible of their great misery! Oh, how
difficult it is to treat with respect, such assaults upon all we have ever really held sacred.
But to return to history. In 1803 we purchased what was then called Louisiana, of
France. It included the now states of Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, and Iowa; also the
territory of Minnesota, and the present bone of contention, Kansas and Nebraska. Slavery
already existed among the French at New Orleans; and, to some extent, at St. Louis. In
1812 Louisiana came into the Union as a slave state, without controversy. In 1818 or ’19,
Missouri showed signs of a wish to come in with slavery. This was resisted by northern
members of Congress; and thus began the first great slavery agitation in the nation. This
controversy lasted several months, and became very angry and exciting; the House of
Representatives voting steadily for the prohibition of slavery in Missouri, and the Senate
voting as steadily against it. Threats of breaking up the Union were freely made; and the
ablest public men of the day became seriously alarmed. At length a compromise was made,
in which, like all compromises, both sides yielded something. It was a law passed on the
6th day of March, 1820, providing that Missouri might come into the Union with slavery,
but that in all the remaining part of the territory purchased of France, which lies north of
36 degrees and 30 minutes north latitude, slavery should never be permitted. . . .

Thus originated the Missouri Compromise; and thus has it been respected down to
1845. . . .
During this long period of time Nebraska had remained, substantially an uninhabited
country, but now emigration to, and settlement within it began to take place. It is about one
third as large as the present United States, and its importance so long overlooked, begins
to come into view. The restriction of slavery by the Missouri Compromise directly applies
to it; in fact, was first made, and has since been maintained, expressly for it. In 1853, a bill
to give it a territorial government passed the House of Representatives, and, in the hands
of Judge Douglas, failed of passing the Senate only for want of time. This bill contained
no repeal of the Missouri Compromise. Indeed, when it was assailed because it did not
contain such repeal, Judge Douglas defended it in its existing form. On January 4th, 1854,
Judge Douglas introduces a new bill to give Nebraska territorial government. He
accompanies this bill with a report, in which last, he expressly recommends that the
Missouri Compromise shall neither be affirmed nor repealed.
Before long the bill is so modified as to make two territories instead of one; calling the
Southern one Kansas.
Also, about a month after the introduction of the bill, on the judge’s own motion, it is
so amended as to declare the Missouri Compromise inoperative and void; and,
substantially, that the people who go and settle there may establish slavery, or exclude it,
as they may see fit. In this shape the bill passed both branches of congress, and became a
law.
This is the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. The foregoing history may not be
precisely accurate in every particular; but I am sure it is sufficiently so, for all the uses I
shall attempt to make of it, and in it, we have before us, the chief material enabling us to
correctly judge whether the repeal of the Missouri Compromise is right or wrong.
I think, and shall try to show, that it is wrong; wrong in its direct effect, letting slavery
into Kansas and Nebraska—and wrong in its prospective principle, allowing it to spread to
every other part of the wide world, where men can be found inclined to take it.
This declared indifference, but as I must think, covert real zeal for the spread of slavery,
I cannot but hate. I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it
because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world—enables the
enemies of free institutions, with plausibility, to taunt us as hypocrites—causes the real
friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity, and especially because it forces so many really
good men amongst ourselves into an open war with the very fundamental principles of civil
liberty—criticizing the Declaration of Independence, and insisting that there is no right
principle of action but self-interest.
Before proceeding, let me say I think I have no prejudice against the Southern people.
They are just what we would be in their situation. If slavery did not now exist amongst
them, they would not introduce it. If it did now exist amongst us, we should not instantly
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give it up. This I believe of the masses north and south. Doubtless there are individuals, on
both sides, who would not hold slaves under any circumstances; and others who would
gladly introduce slavery anew, if it were out of existence. We know that some southern
men do free their slaves, go north, and become tip-top abolitionists; while some northern
ones go south, and become most cruel slave-masters.
When southern people tell us they are no more responsible for the origin of slavery,
than we; I acknowledge the fact. When it is said that the institution exists; and that it is
very difficult to get rid of it, in any satisfactory way, I can understand and appreciate the
saying. I surely will not blame them for not doing what I should not know how to do myself.
If all earthly power were given me, I should not know what to do, as to the existing
institution. My first impulse would be to free all the slaves, and send them to Liberia,—to
their own native land. But a moment’s reflection would convince me, that whatever of high
hope, (as I think there is) there may be in this, in the long run, its sudden execution is
impossible. If they were all landed there in a day, they would all perish in the next ten days;
and there are not surplus shipping and surplus money enough in the world to carry them
there in many times ten days. What then? Free them all, and keep them among us as
underlings? Is it quite certain that this betters their condition? I think I would not hold one
in slavery, at any rate; yet the point is not clear enough for me to denounce people upon.
What next? Free them, and make them politically and socially, our equals? My own
feelings will not admit of this; and if mine would, we well know that those of the great
mass of white people will not. Whether this feeling accords with justice and sound
judgment, is not the sole question, if indeed, it is any part of it. A universal feeling, whether
well or ill-founded, cannot be safely disregarded. We cannot, then, make them equals. It
does seem to me that systems of gradual emancipation might be adopted; but for their
tardiness in this, I will not undertake to judge our brethren of the south. . . .
Equal justice to the south, it is said, requires us to consent to the extending of slavery
to new countries. That is to say, inasmuch as you do not object to my taking my hog to
Nebraska, therefore I must not object to you taking your slave. Now, I admit this is
perfectly logical, if there is no difference between hogs and negroes. But while you thus
require me to deny the humanity of the negro, I wish to ask whether you of the south
yourselves, have ever been willing to do as much? It is kindly provided that of all those
who come into the world, only a small percentage are natural tyrants. That percentage is
no larger in the slave States than in the free. The great majority, south as well as north,
have human sympathies, of which they can no more divest themselves than they can of
their sensibility to physical pain. These sympathies in the bosoms of the southern people,
manifest in many ways, their sense of the wrong of slavery, and their consciousness that,
after all, there is humanity in the negro. If they deny this, let me address them a few plain
questions. In 1820 you joined the north, almost unanimously, in declaring the African slave
trade piracy, and in annexing to it the punishment of death. Why did you do this? If you
did not feel that it was wrong, why did you join in providing that men should be hung for
it? The practice was no more than bringing wild negroes from Africa, to sell to such as
would buy them. But you never thought of hanging men for catching and selling wild
horses, wild buffaloes or wild bears. . . .

But one great argument in the support of the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, is still
to come. That argument is “the sacred right of self-government. . . .”
I trust I understand, and truly estimate the right of self-government. My faith in the
proposition that each man should do precisely as he pleases with all which is exclusively
his own, lies at the foundation of the sense of justice there is in me. I extend the principles
to communities of men, as well as to individuals. I so extend it, because it is politically
wise, as well as naturally just; politically wise, in saving us from broils about matters which
do not concern us. Here, or at Washington, I would not trouble myself with the oyster laws
of Virginia, or the cranberry laws of Indiana.
The doctrine of self-government is right—absolutely and eternally right—but it has no
just application, as here attempted. Or perhaps I should rather say that whether it has such
just application depends upon whether a negro is not or is a man. If he is not a man, why
in that case, he who is a man may, as a matter of self-government, do just as he pleases
with him. But if the negro is a man, is it not to that extent, a total destruction of selfgovernment, to say that he too shall not govern himself? When the white man governs
himself that is self-government; but when he governs himself, and also governs another
man, that is more than self-government—that is despotism. If the negro is a man, why then
my ancient faith teaches me that “all men are created equal;” and that there can be no moral
right in connection with one man’s making a slave of another.
Judge Douglas frequently, with bitter irony and sarcasm, paraphrases our argument by
saying “The white people of Nebraska are good enough to govern themselves, but they are
not good enough to govern a few miserable negroes!!”
Well, I doubt not that the people of Nebraska are, and will continue to be as good as
the average of people elsewhere. I do not say the contrary. What I do say is, that no man is
good enough to govern another man, without that other’s consent. I say this is the leading
principle—the sheet anchor of American republicanism. Our Declaration of Independence
says:
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are
instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
I have quoted so much at this time merely to show that according to our ancient faith,
the just powers of governments are derived from the consent of the governed. Now the
relation of masters and slaves is, pro tanto, a total violation of this principle. The master
not only governs the slave without his consent; but he governs him by a set of rules
altogether different from those which he prescribes for himself. Allow all the governed an
equal voice in the government, and that, and that only is self-government. . . .
But you say this question should be left to the people of Nebraska, because they are
more particularly interested. If this be the rule, you must leave it to each individual to say
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for himself whether he will have slaves. What better moral right have thirty-one citizens of
Nebraska to say, that the thirty-second shall not hold slaves, than the people of the thirtyone States have to say that slavery shall not go into the thirty-second State at all?
Another important objection to this application of the right of self-government, is that
it enables the first FEW, to deprive the succeeding MANY, of a free exercise of the right
of self-government. The first few may get slavery IN, and the subsequent many cannot
easily get it OUT. How common is the remark now in the slave States—“If we were only
clear of our slaves, how much better it would be for us.” They are actually deprived of the
privilege of governing themselves as they would, by the action of a very few, in the
beginning. The same thing was true of the whole nation at the time our constitution was
formed. . . .
But Nebraska is urged as a great Union-saving measure. Well I too, go for saving the
Union. Much as I hate slavery, I would consent to the extension of it rather than see the
Union dissolved, just as I would consent to any great evil, to avoid a greater one. But when
I go to Union saving, I must believe, at least, that the means I employ has some adaptation
to the end. To my mind, Nebraska has no such adaptation.
“It hath no relish of salvation in it.”
It is an aggravation, rather, of the only one thing which ever endangers the Union.
When it came upon us, all was peace and quiet. The nation was looking to the forming of
new bonds of Union; and a long course of peace and prosperity seemed to lie before us. In
the whole range of possibility, there scarcely appears to me to have been any thing, out of
which the slavery agitation could have been revived, except the very project of repealing
the Missouri compromise. Every inch of territory we owned, already had a definite
settlement of the slavery question, and by which, all parties were pledged to abide. Indeed,
there was no uninhabited country on the continent, which we could acquire; if we except
some extreme northern regions, which are wholly out of the question. In this state of case,
the genius of Discord himself, could scarcely have invented a way of again getting us by
the ears, but by turning back and destroying the peace measures of the past. The councils
of that genius seem to have prevailed, the Missouri compromise was repealed; and here we
are, in the midst of a new slavery agitation, such, I think, as we have never seen before.
Who is responsible for this? Is it those who resist the measure; or those who,
causelessly, brought it forward, and pressed it through, having reason to know, and, in fact,
knowing it must and would be so resisted? It could not but be expected by its author, that
it would be looked upon as a measure for the extension of slavery, aggravated by a gross
breach of faith. Argue as you will, and long as you will, this is the naked front and aspect,
of the measure. And in this aspect, it could not but produce agitation. Slavery is founded
in the selfishness of man’s nature—opposition to it, in his love of justice. These principles
are an eternal antagonism; and when brought into collision so fiercely, as slavery extension
brings them, shocks, and throes, and convulsions must ceaselessly follow. Repeal the
Missouri compromise—repeal all compromises—repeal the declaration of
independence—repeal all past history, you still cannot repeal human nature. It still will be
52

the abundance of man’s heart, that slavery extension is wrong; and out of the abundance of
his heart, his mouth will continue to speak. . . .
Fellow countrymen—Americans south, as well as north, shall we make no effort to
arrest this? Already the liberal party throughout the world, express the apprehension “that
the one retrograde institution in America, is undermining the principles of progress, and
fatally violating the noblest political system the world ever saw.” This is not the taunt of
enemies, but the warning of friends. Is it quite safe to disregard it—to despise it? Is there
no danger to liberty itself, in discarding the earliest practice, and first precept of our ancient
faith? In our greedy chase to make profit of the negro, let us beware, lest we “cancel and
tear to pieces” even the white man’s charter of freedom.
Our republican robe is soiled, and trailed in the dust. Let us repurify it. Let us turn and
wash it white, in the spirit, if not the blood, of the Revolution. Let us turn slavery from its
claims of “moral right,” back upon its existing legal rights, and its arguments of
“necessity.” Let us return it to the position our fathers gave it; and there let it rest in peace.
Let us re-adopt the Declaration of Independence, and with it, the practices, and policy,
which harmonize with it. Let north and south—let all Americans—let all lovers of liberty
everywhere—join in the great and good work. If we do this, we shall not only have saved
the Union; but we shall have so saved it, as to make, and to keep it, forever worthy of the
saving. We shall have so saved it, that the succeeding millions of free happy people, the
world over, shall rise up, and call us blessed, to the latest generations.

53

House Divided Speech
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
On June 16, 1858 Abraham Lincoln was chosen as the Illinois Republican Party’s
candidate for the U.S. Senate, running against Democrat Stephen A. Douglas. Upon
receiving the nomination, Lincoln delivered these remarks to his Republican colleagues in
the Hall of Representatives. While not predicting civil war, Lincoln argues that the Union
cannot be divided by slavery forever. He then goes on to describe the crisis of a nation torn
apart by slavery, blaming the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854), and its author Douglas, for
opening the door to the extension of slavery. Lincoln was also alarmed by the recent Dred
Scott v. Sandford decision (1857), in which the Supreme Court held that Congress lacked
the power to prohibit slavery in the territories.
This speech is most remembered for Lincoln’s quotation of the biblical phrase, “A
house divided against itself cannot stand” (Mark 3:25). What do these words mean? What
is the “house” Lincoln is speaking of? What does it mean to say that it must become “all
one thing, or all the other”? Why wouldn’t the restoration of the Missouri Compromise
(which Lincoln desires) leave the nation a house divided?
The second part of the speech concerns the “tendency” or direction in which the nation
is headed. What is this “tendency,” and why does it concern Lincoln? How do the KansasNebraska Act and Douglas’ policy of “squatter sovereignty” advance the “tendency”
Lincoln decries? According to Lincoln, what will be the end result of adopting a policy of
quarantine (preventing slavery from spreading into the territories)? Why? What result will
follow from the alternative policy of allowing slavery to spread?
Finally, what does Lincoln counsel his fellow Republicans? How should they act in
response to this tendency? Imagine yourself as one of the Republican listeners in the hall,
would this speech persuade you to support Lincoln over Douglas or another candidate?
Why or why not?
Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention.
If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better
judge what to do, and how to do it.
We are now far into the fifth year, since a policy was initiated, with the avowed object,
and confident promise, of putting an end to slavery agitation.
Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only not ceased, but has
constantly augmented.
In my opinion, it will not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached, and passed.

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.
I do not expect the Union to be dissolved—I do not expect the house to fall—but I do
expect it will cease to be divided.
It will become all one thing or all the other.
Either the opponents of slavery, will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where
the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its
advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well
as new—North as well as South.
Have we no tendency to the latter condition?
Let any one who doubts, carefully contemplate that now almost complete legal
combination—piece of machinery so to speak—compounded of the Nebraska doctrine, and
the Dred Scott decision. Let him consider not only what work the machinery is adapted to
do, and how well adapted; but also, let him study the history of its construction, and trace,
if he can, or rather fail, if he can, to trace the evidence of design and concert of action,
among its chief architects, from the beginning.
But, so far, Congress only, had acted; and an indorsement by the people, real or
apparent, was indispensable, to save the point already gained, and give chance for more.
The new year of 1854 found slavery excluded from more than half the States by State
Constitutions, and from most of the national territory by congressional prohibition.
Four days later, commenced the struggle, which ended in repealing that congressional
prohibition.
This opened all the national territory to slavery, and was the first point gained.
This necessity had not been overlooked; but had been provided for, as well as might
be, in the notable argument of “squatter sovereignty,” otherwise called “sacred right of self
government,” which latter phrase, though expressive of the only rightful basis of any
government, was so perverted in this attempted use of it as to amount to just this: That if
any one man, choose to enslave another, no third man shall be allowed to object.
That argument was incorporated into the Nebraska bill itself, in the language which
follows: “It being the true intent and meaning of this act not to legislate slavery into any
Territory or state, not to exclude it therefrom; but to leave the people thereof perfectly free
to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the
Constitution of the United States.”

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Then opened the roar of loose declamation in favor of “Squatter Sovereignty,” and
“Sacred right of self-government.”
“But,” said opposition members, “let us be more specific—let us amend the bill so as
to expressly declare that the people of the territory may exclude slavery.” “Not we,” said
the friends of the measure; and down they voted the amendment.
While the Nebraska Bill was passing through Congress, a law case involving the
question of a negro’s freedom, by reason of his owner having voluntarily taken him first
into a free state and then a territory covered by the congressional prohibition, and held him
as a slave, for a long time in each, was passing through the U.S. Circuit Court for the
District of Missouri; and both Nebraska bill and law suit were brought to a decision in the
same month of May, 1854. The negro’s name was “Dred Scott,” which name now
designates the decision finally made in the case.
Before the then next Presidential election, the law case came to, and was argued in, the
Supreme Court of the United States; but the decision of it was deferred until after the
election. Still, before the election, Senator Trumbull, on the floor of the Senate, requests
the leading advocate of the Nebraska bill to state his opinion whether the people of a
territory can constitutionally exclude slavery from their limits; and the latter answers: “That
is a question for the Supreme Court.”
The election came. Mr. Buchanan was elected, and the indorsement, such as it was,
secured. That was the second point gained. The indorsement, however, fell short of a clear
popular majority by nearly four hundred thousand votes, and so, perhaps, was not
overwhelmingly reliable and satisfactory.
The outgoing President, in his last annual message, as impressively as possible, echoed
back upon the people the weight and authority of the indorsement.
The Supreme Court met again; did not announce their decision, but ordered a reargument.
The Presidential inauguration came, and still no decision of the court; but the incoming
President, in his inaugural address, fervently exhorted the people to abide by the
forthcoming decision, whatever might be.
Then, in a few days, came the decision.
The reputed author of the Nebraska Bill finds an early occasion to make a speech at
this capital indorsing the Dred Scott Decision, and vehemently denouncing all opposition
to it.
The new President, too, seizes the early occasion of the Silliman letter to indorse and
strongly construe that decision, and to express his astonishment that any different view had
ever been entertained.
56

At length a squabble springs up between the President and the author of the Nebraska
Bill, on the mere question of fact, whether the Lecompton constitution was or was not, in
any just sense, made by the people of Kansas; and in that squabble the latter declares that
all he wants is a fair vote for the people, and that he cares not whether slavery be voted
down or voted up. I do not understand his declaration that he cares not whether slavery be
voted down or voted up, to be intended by him other than as an apt definition of the policy
he would impress upon the public mind—the principle for which he declares he has
suffered much, and is ready to suffer to the end.
And well may he cling to that principle. If he has any parental feeling, well may he
cling to it. That principle, is the only shred left of his original Nebraska doctrine. Under
the Dred Scott decision, “squatter sovereignty” squatted out of existence, tumbled down
like temporary scaffolding—like the mould at the foundry served through one blast and
fell back into loose sand—helped to carry an election, and then was kicked to the winds.
His late joint struggle with the Republicans, against the Lecompton Constitution, involves
nothing of the original Nebraska doctrine. That struggle was made on a point, the right of
a people to make their own constitution, upon which he and the Republicans have never
differed.
The several points of the Dred Scott decision, in connection with Senator Douglas’
“care-not” policy, constitute the piece of machinery, in its present state of advancement.
This was the third point gained.
The working points of that machinery are:
First, that no negro slave, imported as such from Africa, and no descendant of such
slave can ever be a citizen of any State, in the sense of that term as used in the Constitution
of the United States.
This point is made in order to deprive the negro, in every possible event, of the benefit
of this provision of the United States Constitution, which declares that—
“The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens
in the several States.”
Secondly, that “subject to the Constitution of the United States,” neither Congress nor
a Territorial Legislature can exclude slavery from any United States Territory.
This point is made in order that individual men may fill up the territories with slaves,
without danger of losing them as property, and thus to enhance the chances of permanency
to the institution through all the future.
Thirdly, that whether the holding a negro in actual slavery in a free State, makes him
free, as against the holder, the United States courts will not decide, but will leave to be
decided by the courts of any slave State the negro may be forced into by the master.

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This point is made, not to be pressed immediately; but, if acquiesced in for a while, and
apparently indorsed by the people at an election, then to sustain the logical conclusion that
what Dred Scott’s master might lawfully do with Dred Scott, in the free State of Illinois,
every other master may lawfully do with any other one, or one thousand slaves, in Illinois,
or in any other free State.
Auxiliary to all this, and working hand in hand with it, the Nebraska doctrine, or what
is left of it, is to educate and mould public opinion, at least Northern public opinion, to not
care whether slavery is voted down or voted up.
This shows exactly where we now are; and partially, also, whither we are tending.
It will throw additional light on the latter, to go back, and run the mind over the string
of historical facts already stated. Several things will now appear less dark and mysterious
than they did when they were transpiring. The people were to be left “perfectly free”
“subject only to the Constitution.” What the Constitution had to do with it, outsiders could
not then see. Plainly enough now, it was an exactly fitted niche, for the Dred Scott decision
to afterward come in, and declare the perfect freedom of the people, to be just no freedom
at all.
Why was the amendment, expressly declaring the right of the people to exclude slavery,
voted down? Plainly enough now, the adoption of it would have spoiled the niche for the
Dred Scott decision.
Why was the court decision held up? Why even a Senator’s individual opinion
withheld, till after the presidential election? Plainly enough now, the speaking out then
would have damaged the “perfectly free” argument upon which the election was to be
carried.
Why the outgoing President’s felicitation on the indorsement? Why the delay of a reargument? Why the incoming President’s advance exhortation in favor of the decision?
These things look like the cautious patting and petting of a spirited horse, preparatory
to mounting him, when it is dreaded that he may give the rider a fall.
And why the hasty after indorsements of the decision by the President and others?
We can not absolutely know that all these exact adaptations are the result of preconcert.
But when we see a lot of framed timbers, different portions of which we know have been
gotten out at different times and places and by different workmen—Stephen, Franklin,
Roger, and James, for instance—and when we see these timbers joined together, and see
they exactly make the frame of a house or a mill, all the tenons and mortices exactly fitting,
and all the lengths and proportions of the different pieces exactly adapted to their respective
places, and not a piece too many or too few—not omitting even scaffolding—or, if a single
piece be lacking, we can see the place in the frame exactly fitted and prepared to yet bring
such piece in—in such a case, we find it impossible not to believe that Stephen and Franklin
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and Roger and James all understood one another from the beginning, and all worked upon
a common plan or draft drawn up before the first lick was struck.
It should not be overlooked that, by the Nebraska Bill, the people of a State, as well as
Territory, were to be left “perfectly free” “subject only to the Constitution.”
Why mention a State? They were legislating for territories, and not for or about States.
Certainly the people of a State are and ought to be subject to the Constitution of the United
States; but why is mention of this lugged into this merely territorial law? Why are the
people of a territory and the people of a state therein lumped together, and their relation to
the Constitution therein treated as being precisely the same?
While the opinion of the Court, by Chief Justice Taney, in the Dred Scott case, and the
separate opinions of all the concurring Judges, expressly declare that the Constitution of
the United States neither permits Congress nor a Territorial legislature to exclude slavery
from any United States territory, they all omit to declare whether or not the same
Constitution permits a state, or the people of a State, to exclude it.
Possibly, this is a mere omission; but who can be quite sure, if McLean or Curtis had
sought to get into the opinion a declaration of unlimited power in the people of a state to
exclude slavery from their limits, just as Chase and Macy sought to get such declaration,
in behalf of the people of a territory, into the Nebraska bill—I ask, who can be quite sure
that it would not have been voted down, in the one case, as it had been in the other.
The nearest approach to the point of declaring the power of a State over slavery, is
made by Judge Nelson. He approaches it more than once, using the precise idea, and almost
the language too, of the Nebraska act. On one occasion his exact language is, “except in
cases where the power is restrained by the Constitution of the United States, the law of the
State is supreme over the subject of slavery within its jurisdiction.”
In what cases the power of the states is so restrained by the U.S. Constitution, is left an
open question, precisely as the same question, as to the restraint on the power of the
territories was left open in the Nebraska act. Put that and that together, and we have another
nice little niche, which we may, ere long, see filled with another Supreme Court decision,
declaring that the Constitution of the United States does not permit a state to exclude
slavery from its limits.
And this may especially be expected if the doctrine of “care not” whether slavery be
voted down or voted up, shall gain upon the public mind sufficiently to give promise that
such a decision can be maintained when made.
Such a decision is all that slavery now lacks of being alike lawful in all the States.
Welcome, or unwelcome, such decision is probably coming, and will soon be upon us,
unless the power of the present political dynasty shall be met and overthrown.

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We shall lie down pleasantly dreaming that the people of Missouri are on the verge of
making their State free; and we shall awake to the reality, instead, that the Supreme Court
has made Illinois a slave State.
To meet and overthrow the power of that dynasty, is the work now before all those who
would prevent that consummation.
This is what we have to do.
But how can we best do it?
There are those who denounce us openly to their own friends, and yet whisper us softly,
that Senator Douglas is the aptest instrument there is, with which to effect that object. They
wish us to infer all, from the facts, that he now has a little quarrel with the present head of
the dynasty; and that he has regularly voted with us, on a single point, upon which, he and
we, have never differed.
They remind us that he is a great man, and that the largest of us are very small ones.
Let this be granted. But “a living dog is better than a dead lion.” Judge Douglas, if not a
dead lion for this work, is at least a caged and toothless one. How can he oppose the
advances of slavery? He don’t care anything about it. His avowed mission is impressing
the “public heart” to care nothing about it.
A leading Douglas Democratic newspaper thinks Douglas’ superior talent will be
needed to resist the revival of the African slave trade.
Does Douglas believe an effort to revive that trade is approaching? He has not said so.
Does he really think so? But if it is, how can he resist it? For years he has labored to prove
it a sacred right of white men to take negro slaves into the new territories. Can he possibly
show that it is less a sacred right to buy them where they can be bought cheapest? And,
unquestionably they can be bought cheaper in Africa than in Virginia.
He has done all in his power to reduce the whole question of slavery to one of a mere
right of property; and as such, how can he oppose the foreign slave trade—how can he
refuse that trade in that “property” shall be “perfectly free”—unless he does it as a
protection to the home production? And as the home producers will probably not ask the
protection, he will be wholly without a ground of opposition.
Senator Douglas holds, we know, that a man may rightfully be wiser to-day than he
was yesterday—that he may rightfully change when he finds himself wrong.
But can we, for that reason, run ahead, and infer that he will make any particular
change, of which he, himself, has given no intimation? Can we safely base our action upon
any such vague inference?

Now, as ever, I wish not to misrepresent Judge Douglas’ position, question his motives,
or do ought that can be personally offensive to him.
Whenever, if ever, he and we can come together on principle so that our great cause
may have assistance from his great ability, I hope to have interposed no adventitious
obstacle.
But clearly, he is not now with us—he does not pretend to be—he does not promise to
ever be.
Our cause, then, must be entrusted to, and conducted by its own undoubted friends—
those whose hands are free, whose hearts are in the work—who do care for the result.
Two years ago the Republicans of the nation mustered over thirteen hundred thousand
strong.
We did this under the single impulse of resistance to a common danger, with every
external circumstance against us.
Of strange, discordant, and even, hostile elements, we gathered from the four winds,
and formed and fought the battle through, under the constant hot fire of a disciplined, proud,
and pampered enemy.
Did we brave all then to falter now?—now—when that same enemy is wavering,
dissevered and belligerent?
The result is not doubtful. We shall not fail—if we stand firm, we shall not fail.
Wise councils may accelerate or mistakes delay it, but, sooner or later the victory is
sure to come.

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Excerpt from the Cooper Union Address
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
After his U.S. Senate defeat to Democrat Stephen A. Douglas in January 1859, Lincoln
began considering a presidential run. Invited to speak in New York City by the clergyman
Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87), Lincoln began drafting one of the longest and most
important speeches of his political career. On February 27, 1860, the dark-horse candidate
faced an audience of 1,500 spectators, including such luminaries as the editor of the
antislavery New York Tribune, Horace Greeley (1811–72). The next day, 170,000 copies
of the speech were in circulation through the newspapers, and less than ten weeks later,
Lincoln secured the Republican nomination for president.
In his speech, Lincoln responds to Douglas’ claim that popular sovereignty was the
great principle of the republic. Appealing to the original intent of the framers of the
Constitution, Lincoln argues that the federal government can prevent the spread of slavery
into the federal territories. How does Lincoln establish that the Framers agreed with the
Republican rather than the Democratic view of the powers of the federal government
respecting slavery in the territories? Why does he address Southerners in a speech to New
York City Republicans? What is Lincoln’s message to the Southerners? Finally, what does
he instruct Republicans to do? What is their “duty”? Imagine you were in the audience,
would this speech persuade you?
Watch a performance of the speech by the actor Sam Waterston at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQ2De8VcSLw.
Mr. President and fellow citizens of New York:
The facts with which I shall deal this evening are mainly old and familiar; nor is there
anything new in the general use I shall make of them. If there shall be any novelty, it will
be in the mode of presenting the facts, and the inferences and observations following that
presentation.
In his speech last autumn, at Columbus, Ohio, as reported in “The New-York Times,”
Senator Douglas said:
“Our fathers, when they framed the Government under which we live, understood this
question just as well, and even better, than we do now.”
I fully indorse this, and I adopt it as a text for this discourse. I so adopt it because it
furnishes a precise and an agreed starting point for a discussion between Republicans and
that wing of the Democracy headed by Senator Douglas. It simply leaves the inquiry:
“What was the understanding those fathers had of the question mentioned?”
What is the frame of government under which we live?
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The answer must be: “The Constitution of the United States.” That Constitution
consists of the original, framed in 1787, (and under which the present government first
went into operation,) and twelve subsequently framed amendments, the first ten of which
were framed in 1789.
Who were our fathers that framed the Constitution? I suppose the “thirty-nine” who
signed the original instrument may be fairly called our fathers who framed that part of the
present Government. It is almost exactly true to say they framed it, and it is altogether true
to say they fairly represented the opinion and sentiment of the whole nation at that time.
Their names, being familiar to nearly all, and accessible to quite all, need not now be
repeated.
I take these “thirty-nine,” for the present, as being “our fathers who framed the
Government under which we live.”
What is the question which, according to the text, those fathers understood “just as
well, and even better than we do now?”
It is this: Does the proper division of local from federal authority, or anything in the
Constitution, forbid our Federal Government to control as to slavery in our Federal
Territories?
Upon this, Senator Douglas holds the affirmative, and Republicans the negative. This
affirmation and denial form an issue; and this issue—this question—is precisely what the
text declares our fathers understood “better than we.”
Let us now inquire whether the “thirty-nine,” or any of them, ever acted upon this
question; and if they did, how they acted upon it—how they expressed that better
understanding?
In 1784, three years before the Constitution—the United States then owning the
Northwestern Territory, and no other, the Congress of the Confederation had before them
the question of prohibiting slavery in that Territory; and four of the “thirty-nine” who
afterward framed the Constitution, were in that Congress, and voted on that question. Of
these, Roger Sherman, Thomas Mifflin, and Hugh Williamson voted for the prohibition,
thus showing that, in their understanding, no line dividing local from federal authority, nor
anything else, properly forbade the Federal Government to control as to slavery in federal
territory. The other of the four—James M’Henry—voted against the prohibition, showing
that, for some cause, he thought it improper to vote for it.
In 1787, still before the Constitution, but while the Convention was in session framing
it, and while the Northwestern Territory still was the only territory owned by the United
States, the same question of prohibiting slavery in the territory again came before the
Congress of the Confederation; and two more of the “thirty-nine” who afterward signed
the Constitution, were in that Congress, and voted on the question. . . .

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The question of federal control of slavery in the territories, seems not to have been
directly before the Convention which framed the original Constitution; and hence it is not
recorded that the “thirty-nine,” or any of them, while engaged on that instrument, expressed
any opinion on that precise question.
In 1789, by the first Congress which sat under the Constitution, an act was passed to
enforce the Ordinance of ’87, including the prohibition of slavery in the Northwestern
Territory. The bill for this act was reported by one of the “thirty-nine,” Thomas
Fitzsimmons, then a member of the House of Representatives from Pennsylvania. It went
through all its stages without a word of opposition, and finally passed both branches
without yeas and nays, which is equivalent to a unanimous passage. . . .
This shows that, in their understanding, no line dividing local from federal authority,
nor anything in the Constitution, properly forbade Congress to prohibit slavery in the
federal territory; else both their fidelity to correct principle, and their oath to support the
Constitution, would have constrained them to oppose the prohibition.
Again, George Washington, another of the “thirty-nine,” was then President of the
United States, and, as such approved and signed the bill; thus completing its validity as a
law, and thus showing that, in his understanding, no line dividing local from federal
authority, nor anything in the Constitution, forbade the Federal Government, to control as
to slavery in federal territory. . . .
No great while after the adoption of the original Constitution, North Carolina ceded to
the Federal Government the country now constituting the State of Tennessee; and a few
years later Georgia ceded that which now constitutes the States of Mississippi and
Alabama. In both deeds of cession it was made a condition by the ceding States that the
Federal Government should not prohibit slavery in the ceded territory. Besides this, slavery
was then actually in the ceded country. Under these circumstances, Congress, on taking
charge of these countries, did not absolutely prohibit slavery within them. But they did
interfere with it—take control of it—even there, to a certain extent. . . .
The sum of the whole is, that of our thirty-nine fathers who framed the original
Constitution, twenty-one—a clear majority of the whole—certainly understood that no
proper division of local from federal authority, nor any part of the Constitution, forbade
the Federal Government to control slavery in the federal territories; while all the rest
probably had the same understanding. Such, unquestionably, was the understanding of our
fathers who framed the original Constitution; and the text affirms that they understood the
question “better than we.”
But, so far, I have been considering the understanding of the question manifested by
the framers of the original Constitution. In and by the original instrument, a mode was
provided for amending it; and, as I have already stated, the present frame of “the
Government under which we live” consists of that original, and twelve amendatory articles
framed and adopted since. Those who now insist that federal control of slavery in federal
territories violates the Constitution, point us to the provisions which they suppose it thus
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violates; and, as I understand, that all fix upon provisions in these amendatory articles, and
not in the original instrument. The Supreme Court, in the Dred Scott case, plant themselves
upon the fifth amendment, which provides that no person shall be deprived of “life, liberty
or property without due process of law;” while Senator Douglas and his peculiar adherents
plant themselves upon the tenth amendment, providing that “the powers not delegated to
the United States by the Constitution” “are reserved to the States respectively, or to the
people.”
Now, it so happens that these amendments were framed by the first Congress which sat
under the Constitution—the identical Congress which passed the act already mentioned,
enforcing the prohibition of slavery in the Northwestern Territory. Not only was it the same
Congress, but they were the identical, same individual men who, at the same session, and
at the same time within the session, had under consideration, and in progress toward
maturity, these Constitutional amendments, and this act prohibiting slavery in all the
territory the nation then owned. . . .
Now, and here, let me guard a little against being misunderstood. I do not mean to say
we are bound to follow implicitly in whatever our fathers did. To do so, would be to discard
all the lights of current experience—to reject all progress—all improvement. What I do say
is, that if we would supplant the opinions and policy of our fathers in any case, we should
do so upon evidence so conclusive, and argument so clear, that even their great authority,
fairly considered and weighed, cannot stand; and most surely not in a case whereof we
ourselves declare they understood the question better than we.
If any man at this day sincerely believes that a proper division of local from federal
authority, or any part of the Constitution, forbids the Federal Government to control as to
slavery in the federal territories, he is right to say so, and to enforce his position by all
truthful evidence and fair argument which he can. But he has no right to mislead others,
who have less access to history, and less leisure to study it, into the false belief that “our
fathers who framed the Government under which we live” were of the same opinion—thus
substituting falsehood and deception for truthful evidence and fair argument. If any man at
this day sincerely believes “our fathers who framed the Government under which we live,”
used and applied principles, in other cases, which ought to have led them to understand
that a proper division of local from federal authority or some part of the Constitution,
forbids the Federal Government to control as to slavery in the federal territories, he is right
to say so. But he should, at the same time, brave the responsibility of declaring that, in his
opinion, he understands their principles better than they did themselves; and especially
should he not shirk that responsibility by asserting that they “understood the question just
as well, and even better, than we do now.”
But enough! Let all who believe that “our fathers, who framed the Government under
which we live, understood this question just as well, and even better, than we do now,”
speak as they spoke, and act as they acted upon it. This is all Republicans ask—all
Republicans desire—in relation to slavery. As those fathers marked it, so let it be again
marked, as an evil not to be extended, but to be tolerated and protected only because of
and so far as its actual presence among us makes that toleration and protection a necessity.
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Let all the guarantees those fathers gave it, be, not grudgingly, but fully and fairly,
maintained. For this Republicans contend, and with this, so far as I know or believe, they
will be content. . . .
And now, if they would listen—as I suppose they will not—I would address a few
words to the Southern people.
I would say to them:—You consider yourselves a reasonable and a just people; and I
consider that in the general qualities of reason and justice you are not inferior to any other
people. Still, when you speak of us Republicans, you do so only to denounce us as reptiles,
or, at the best, as no better than outlaws. You will grant a hearing to pirates or murderers,
but nothing like it to “Black Republicans.” In all your contentions with one another, each
of you deems an unconditional condemnation of “Black Republicanism” as the first thing
to be attended to. Indeed, such condemnation of us seems to be an indispensable
prerequisite—license, so to speak—among you to be admitted or permitted to speak at all.
Now, can you, or not, be prevailed upon to pause and to consider whether this is quite just
to us, or even to yourselves? Bring forward your charges and specifications, and then be
patient long enough to hear us deny or justify.
You say we are sectional. We deny it. That makes an issue; and the burden of proof is
upon you. You produce your proof; and what is it? Why, that our party has no existence in
your section—gets no votes in your section. The fact is substantially true; but does it prove
the issue? If it does, then in case we should, without change of principle, begin to get votes
in your section, we should thereby cease to be sectional. You cannot escape this conclusion;
and yet, are you willing to abide by it? If you are, you will probably soon find that we have
ceased to be sectional, for we shall get votes in your section this very year. You will then
begin to discover, as the truth plainly is, that your proof does not touch the issue. The fact
that we get no votes in your section, is a fact of your making, and not of ours. And if there
be fault in that fact, that fault is primarily yours, and remains until you show that we repel
you by some wrong principle or practice. If we do repel you by any wrong principle or
practice, the fault is ours; but this brings you to where you ought to have started—to a
discussion of the right or wrong of our principle. If our principle, put in practice, would
wrong your section for the benefit of ours, or for any other object, then our principle, and
we with it, are sectional, and are justly opposed and denounced as such. Meet us, then, on
the question of whether our principle, put in practice, would wrong your section; and so
meet it as if it were possible that something may be said on our side. Do you accept the
challenge? No! Then you really believe that the principle which “our fathers who framed
the Government under which we live” thought so clearly right as to adopt it, and indorse it
again and again, upon their official oaths, is in fact so clearly wrong as to demand your
condemnation without a moment's consideration. . . .
But you say you are conservative—eminently conservative—while we are
revolutionary, destructive, or something of the sort. What is conservatism? Is it not
adherence to the old and tried, against the new and untried? We stick to, contend for, the
identical old policy on the point in controversy which was adopted by “our fathers who
framed the Government under which we live;” while you with one accord reject, and scout,
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and spit upon that old policy, and insist upon substituting something new. True, you
disagree among yourselves as to what that substitute shall be. You are divided on new
propositions and plans, but you are unanimous in rejecting and denouncing the old policy
of the fathers. . . .
Again, you say we have made the slavery question more prominent than it formerly
was. We deny it. We admit that it is more prominent, but we deny that we made it so. It
was not we, but you, who discarded the old policy of the fathers. We resisted, and still
resist, your innovation; and thence comes the greater prominence of the question. Would
you have that question reduced to its former proportions? Go back to that old policy. What
has been will be again, under the same conditions. If you would have the peace of the old
times, readopt the precepts and policy of the old times.
You charge that we stir up insurrections among your slaves. We deny it; and what is
your proof? Harper’s Ferry! John Brown!! John Brown was no Republican; and you have
failed to implicate a single Republican in his Harper’s Ferry enterprise. If any member of
our party is guilty in that matter, you know it or you do not know it. If you do know it, you
are inexcusable for not designating the man and proving the fact. If you do not know it,
you are inexcusable for asserting it, and especially for persisting in the assertion after you
have tried and failed to make the proof. You need to be told that persisting in a charge
which one does not know to be true, is simply malicious slander. . . .
Some of you admit that no Republican designedly aided or encouraged the Harper’s
Ferry affair, but still insist that our doctrines and declarations necessarily lead to such
results. We do not believe it. We know we hold to no doctrine, and make no declaration,
which were not held to and made by “our fathers who framed the Government under which
we live.” You never dealt fairly by us in relation to this affair. When it occurred, some
important State elections were near at hand, and you were in evident glee with the belief
that, by charging the blame upon us, you could get an advantage of us in those elections.
The elections came, and your expectations were not quite fulfilled. Every Republican man
knew that, as to himself at least, your charge was a slander, and he was not much inclined
by it to cast his vote in your favor. Republican doctrines and declarations are accompanied
with a continual protest against any interference whatever with your slaves, or with you
about your slaves. Surely, this does not encourage them to revolt. True, we do, in common
with “our fathers, who framed the Government under which we live,” declare our belief
that slavery is wrong; but the slaves do not hear us declare even this. For anything we say
or do, the slaves would scarcely know there is a Republican party. I believe they would
not, in fact, generally know it but for your misrepresentations of us, in their hearing. In
your political contests among yourselves, each faction charges the other with sympathy
with Black Republicanism; and then, to give point to the charge, defines Black
Republicanism to simply be insurrection, blood and thunder among the slaves. . . .
But you will break up the Union rather than submit to a denial of your Constitutional
rights.

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That has a somewhat reckless sound; but it would be palliated, if not fully justified,
were we proposing, by the mere force of numbers, to deprive you of some right, plainly
written down in the Constitution. But we are proposing no such thing.
When you make these declarations, you have a specific and well-understood allusion
to an assumed Constitutional right of yours, to take slaves into the federal territories, and
to hold them there as property. But no such right is specifically written in the Constitution.
That instrument is literally silent about any such right. We, on the contrary, deny that such
a right has any existence in the Constitution, even by implication.
Your purpose, then, plainly stated, is that you will destroy the Government, unless you
be allowed to construe and enforce the Constitution as you please, on all points in dispute
between you and us. You will rule or ruin in all events.
This, plainly stated, is your language. Perhaps you will say the Supreme Court has
decided the disputed Constitutional question in your favor. Not quite so. But waiving the
lawyer's distinction between dictum and decision, the Court have decided the question for
you in a sort of way. The Court have substantially said, it is your Constitutional right to
take slaves into the federal territories, and to hold them there as property. When I say the
decision was made in a sort of way, I mean it was made in a divided Court, by a bare
majority of the Judges, and they not quite agreeing with one another in the reasons for
making it; that it is so made as that its avowed supporters disagree with one another about
its meaning, and that it was mainly based upon a mistaken statement of fact—the statement
in the opinion that “the right of property in a slave is distinctly and expressly affirmed in
the Constitution.”
An inspection of the Constitution will show that the right of property in a slave is
not “distinctly and expressly affirmed” in it. Bear in mind, the Judges do not pledge their
judicial opinion that such right is impliedly affirmed in the Constitution; but they pledge
their veracity that it is “distinctly and expressly” affirmed there—“distinctly,” that is, not
mingled with anything else—“expressly,” that is, in words meaning just that, without the
aid of any inference, and susceptible of no other meaning.
If they had only pledged their judicial opinion that such right is affirmed in the
instrument by implication, it would be open to others to show that neither the word “slave”
nor “slavery” is to be found in the Constitution, nor the word “property” even, in any
connection with language alluding to the things slave, or slavery; and that wherever in that
instrument the slave is alluded to, he is called a “person;”—and wherever his master’s legal
right in relation to him is alluded to, it is spoken of as “service or labor which may be
due,”—as a debt payable in service or labor. Also, it would be open to show, by
contemporaneous history, that this mode of alluding to slaves and slavery, instead of
speaking of them, was employed on purpose to exclude from the Constitution the idea that
there could be property in man.
To show all this, is easy and certain.

When this obvious mistake of the Judges shall be brought to their notice, is it not
reasonable to expect that they will withdraw the mistaken statement, and reconsider the
conclusion based upon it?
And then it is to be remembered that “our fathers, who framed the Government under
which we live”—the men who made the Constitution—decided this same Constitutional
question in our favor, long ago—decided it without division among themselves, when
making the decision; without division among themselves about the meaning of it after it
was made, and, so far as any evidence is left, without basing it upon any mistaken statement
of facts.
Under all these circumstances, do you really feel yourselves justified to break up this
Government unless such a court decision as yours is, shall be at once submitted to as a
conclusive and final rule of political action? But you will not abide the election of a
Republican president! In that supposed event, you say, you will destroy the Union; and
then, you say, the great crime of having destroyed it will be upon us! That is cool. A
highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, and mutters through his teeth, “Stand and deliver, or
I shall kill you, and then you will be a murderer!”
To be sure, what the robber demanded of me—my money—was my own; and I had a
clear right to keep it; but it was no more my own than my vote is my own; and the threat
of death to me, to extort my money, and the threat of destruction to the Union, to extort my
vote, can scarcely be distinguished in principle.
A few words now to Republicans. It is exceedingly desirable that all parts of this great
Confederacy shall be at peace, and in harmony, one with another. Let us Republicans do
our part to have it so. Even though much provoked, let us do nothing through passion and
ill temper. Even though the southern people will not so much as listen to us, let us calmly
consider their demands, and yield to them if, in our deliberate view of our duty, we possibly
can. Judging by all they say and do, and by the subject and nature of their controversy with
us, let us determine, if we can, what will satisfy them.
Will they be satisfied if the Territories be unconditionally surrendered to them? We
know they will not. In all their present complaints against us, the Territories are scarcely
mentioned. Invasions and insurrections are the rage now. Will it satisfy them, if, in the
future, we have nothing to do with invasions and insurrections? We know it will not. We
so know, because we know we never had anything to do with invasions and insurrections;
and yet this total abstaining does not exempt us from the charge and the denunciation.
The question recurs, what will satisfy them? Simply this: We must not only let them
alone, but we must somehow, convince them that we do let them alone. This, we know by
experience, is no easy task. We have been so trying to convince them from the very
beginning of our organization, but with no success. In all our platforms and speeches we
have constantly protested our purpose to let them alone; but this has had no tendency to
convince them. Alike unavailing to convince them, is the fact that they have never detected
a man of us in any attempt to disturb them.
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These natural, and apparently adequate means all failing, what will convince them?
This, and this only: cease to call slavery wrong, and join them in calling it right. And this
must be done thoroughly—done in acts as well as in words. Silence will not be tolerated—
we must place ourselves avowedly with them. Senator Douglas’ new sedition law must be
enacted and enforced, suppressing all declarations that slavery is wrong, whether made in
politics, in presses, in pulpits, or in private. We must arrest and return their fugitive slaves
with greedy pleasure. We must pull down our Free State constitutions. The whole
atmosphere must be disinfected from all taint of opposition to slavery, before they will
cease to believe that all their troubles proceed from us.
I am quite aware they do not state their case precisely in this way. Most of them would
probably say to us, “Let us alone, do nothing to us, and say what you please about slavery.”
But we do let them alone—have never disturbed them—so that, after all, it is what we say,
which dissatisfies them. They will continue to accuse us of doing, until we cease saying.
I am also aware they have not, as yet, in terms, demanded the overthrow of our FreeState Constitutions. Yet those Constitutions declare the wrong of slavery, with more
solemn emphasis, than do all other sayings against it; and when all these other sayings shall
have been silenced, the overthrow of these Constitutions will be demanded, and nothing be
left to resist the demand. It is nothing to the contrary, that they do not demand the whole
of this just now. Demanding what they do, and for the reason they do, they can voluntarily
stop nowhere short of this consummation. Holding, as they do, that slavery is morally right,
and socially elevating, they cannot cease to demand a full national recognition of it, as a
legal right, and a social blessing.
Nor can we justifiably withhold this, on any ground save our conviction that slavery is
wrong. If slavery is right, all words, acts, laws, and constitutions against it, are themselves
wrong, and should be silenced, and swept away. If it is right, we cannot justly object to its
nationality—its universality; if it is wrong, they cannot justly insist upon its extension—its
enlargement. All they ask, we could readily grant, if we thought slavery right; all we ask,
they could as readily grant, if they thought it wrong. Their thinking it right, and our thinking
it wrong, is the precise fact upon which depends the whole controversy. Thinking it right,
as they do, they are not to blame for desiring its full recognition, as being right; but,
thinking it wrong, as we do, can we yield to them? Can we cast our votes with their view,
and against our own? In view of our moral, social, and political responsibilities, can we do
this?
Wrong as we think slavery is, we can yet afford to let it alone where it is, because that
much is due to the necessity arising from its actual presence in the nation; but can we, while
our votes will prevent it, allow it to spread into the National Territories, and to overrun us
here in these Free States? If our sense of duty forbids this, then let us stand by our duty,
fearlessly and effectively. Let us be diverted by none of those sophistical contrivances
wherewith we are so industriously plied and belabored—contrivances such as groping for
some middle ground between the right and the wrong, vain as the search for a man who
should be neither a living man nor a dead man—such as a policy of “don’t care” on a
question about which all true men do care—such as Union appeals beseeching true Union
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men to yield to Disunionists, reversing the divine rule, and calling, not the sinners, but the
righteous to repentance—such as invocations to Washington, imploring men to unsay what
Washington said, and undo what Washington did.
Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened
from it by menaces of destruction to the Government nor of dungeons to ourselves. LET
US HAVE FAITH THAT RIGHT MAKES MIGHT, AND IN THAT FAITH, LET US,
TO THE END, DARE TO DO OUR DUTY AS WE UNDERSTAND IT.

71

Farewell Address
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected the 16th president of the United
States. He was the first president from the Republican Party. Upon embarking on his
inaugural journey from Springfield, Illinois, to Washington, DC, Lincoln paid tribute to
his friends with a short impromptu speech on February 11, 1861. Now known as the
“Farewell Address,” these remarks were given as Lincoln boarded a special presidential
train at the Great Western Railroad station. Reporters present at the time printed different
variations of Lincoln’s words; below is Lincoln’s own account of his address.
Like the Gettysburg Address, this eloquent speech has a clear structure: the past
(sentences 2-4), the present (sentence 5), and the future (sentences 6-9). Note, too, how he
organizes his sentences with parallel structures (e.g., “Here my children have been born,
and one is buried.”) What tone or mood does Lincoln achieve through the use of these
literary devices? What is Lincoln’s mood as he takes leave of his hometown to assume the
presidency? What does he foresee for the future? How is his task “greater than that which
rested upon Washington?” Does the mood or tone of this speech surprise you? Why or why
not?
My friends:
No one, not in my situation, can appreciate my feeling of sadness at this parting. To
this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe everything. Here I have lived a quarter
of a century, and have passed from a young to an old man. Here my children have been
born, and one is buried. I now leave, not knowing when or whether ever I may return, with
a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without the assistance
of that Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance, I
cannot fail. Trusting in Him who can go with me, and remain with you, and be everywhere
for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. To His care commending you, as
I hope in your prayers you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell.

72

President and
Commander-in-Chief

Article II
U.S. CONSTITUTION
Article Two of the U.S. Constitution creates the executive branch of the government, and
outlines the powers and duties of the President. We include it here especially to serve as
background for thinking about Lincoln’s execution of the presidential office, guided as it
always was by his devotion to the Constitution, as he understood it.
Reading carefully, ask yourself what exactly is the Office of the President? What is the
structure of the Article? How does each section add to your understanding of the Office of
President? What did the Framers of the Constitution mean by “executive power”? What
are the President’s constitutional responsibilities? What acts is the President permitted to
perform? What is he prohibited from doing? What is the relation of executive power to
constitutional government or the rule of law?
SECTION 1. The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of
America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the
Vice President, chosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows:
Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a
Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which
the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person
holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.
The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by Ballot for two Persons,
of whom one at least shall not be an Inhabitant of the same State with themselves. And
they shall make a List of all the Persons voted for, and of the Number of Votes for each;
which List they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the Seat of the Government
of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate
shall, in the Presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the Certificates,
and the Votes shall then be counted. The Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall
be the President, if such Number be a Majority of the whole Number of Electors appointed;
and if there be more than one who have such Majority, and have an equal Number of Votes,
then the House of Representatives shall immediately choose by Ballot one of them for
President; and if no Person have a Majority, then from the five highest on the List the said
House shall in like Manner choose the President. But in choosing the President, the Votes
shall be taken by States, the Representation from each State having one Vote; A quorum
for this Purpose shall consist of a Member or Members from two thirds of the States, and
a Majority of all the States shall be necessary to a Choice. In every Case, after the Choice
of the President, the Person having the greatest Number of Votes of the Electors shall be
the Vice President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal Votes, the
Senate shall choose from them by Ballot the Vice President.
The Congress may determine the Time of choosing the Electors, and the Day on which
they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States.
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No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time
of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither
shall any person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty
five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.
In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or
Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the Same shall devolve on
the Vice President, and the Congress may by Law provide for the Case of Removal, Death,
Resignation or Inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what Officer
shall then act as President, and such Officer shall act accordingly, until the Disability be
removed, or a President shall be elected.
The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which
shall neither be increased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been
elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United
States, or any of them.
Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or
Affirmation:—“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of
President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and
defend the Constitution of the United States.”
SECTION 2. The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the
United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service
of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each
of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective
Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the
United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.
He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make
Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by
and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public
Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United
States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be
established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior
Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads
of Departments.
The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the
Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next
Session.
SECTION 3. He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of
the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge
necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or
either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of
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Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper; he shall receive
Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully
executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States.
SECTION 4. The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall
be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other
high Crimes and Misdemeanors.

76

First Inaugural Address
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
The First Inaugural Address was delivered on March 4, 1861, ten days after Abraham
Lincoln’s arrival in Washington, DC. Several southern states had already seceded from
the Union, and Jefferson Davis (1808–89) had been inaugurated as the president of the
Confederacy just two weeks before. Ignoring advice to the contrary, the former Illinois
congressman (1809–65) rode with outgoing President James Buchanan (1791–1868) in an
open carriage to the Capitol, where he took the oath of office from the East Portico steps.
Lincoln begins by affirming his Constitutional duty to preserve the Union while
reassuring the South as to “the good will, conciliatory purposes, and Constitutional
scruples of the new administration.” Why does Lincoln think the Union is perpetual? How
does Lincoln define “secession”? Why is secession unconstitutional? What is the difference
between what Lincoln calls “a government proper” and “an association of states in the
nature of a contract merely”? Assuming that “the Union is unbroken,” what does Lincoln
say is his constitutional responsibility as president regarding the laws of the Union?
In his famous last appeal, Lincoln expresses the hope—forlorn as it turned out—that
the “mystic chords of memory” would draw the Union back together. This memorable
expression invites us to think about how and why speech about the things we share is
important for forming and cementing our loyalties, our affections, our commitments, and
our common memories. What are the “mystic chords of memory”? Why are they
important? What role do they play in uniting our country? Do they have limitations?
In compliance with a custom as old as the government itself, I appear before you to address
you briefly, and to take in your presence the oath prescribed by the Constitution of the
United States to be taken by the President “before he enters on the execution of his office.”
I do not consider it necessary at present for me to discuss those matters of
administration about which there is no special anxiety or excitement.
Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern States that by the
accession of a Republican Administration their property and their peace and personal
security are to be endangered. There has never been any reasonable cause for such
apprehension. Indeed, the most ample evidence to the contrary has all the while existed
and been open to their inspection. It is found in nearly all the published speeches of him
who now addresses you. I do but quote from one of those speeches when I declare that—
I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of
slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do
so, and I have no inclination to do so.

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Those who nominated and elected me did so with full knowledge that I had made this
and many similar declarations, and had never recanted them; and, more than this, they
placed in the platform for my acceptance, and as a law to themselves and to me, the clear
and emphatic resolution which I now read:
Resolved, That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States, and
especially the right of each State to order and control its own domestic
institutions according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential to that
balance of power on which the perfection and endurance of our political
fabric depend, and we denounce the lawless invasion by armed force of the
soil of any State or Territory, no matter under what pretext, as among the
gravest of crimes.
I now reiterate these sentiments; and, in doing so, I only press upon the public attention
the most conclusive evidence of which the case is susceptible, that the property, peace, and
security of no section are to be in any wise endangered by the now incoming
Administration. I add, too, that all the protection which, consistently with the Constitution
and the laws, can be given will be cheerfully given to all the States when lawfully
demanded, for whatever cause—as cheerfully to one section as to another.
There is much controversy about the delivering up of fugitives from service or labor.
The clause I now read is as plainly written in the Constitution as any other of its provisions:
No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof,
escaping into another, shall in consequence of any law or regulation therein
be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim
of the party to whom such service or labor may be due.
It is scarcely questioned that this provision was intended by those who made it for the
reclaiming of what we call fugitive slaves; and the intention of the lawgiver is the law. All
members of Congress swear their support to the whole Constitution—to this provision as
much as to any other. To the proposition, then, that slaves whose cases come within the
terms of this clause “shall be delivered up,” their oaths are unanimous. Now, if they would
make the effort in good temper, could they not with nearly equal unanimity frame and pass
a law by means of which to keep good that unanimous oath?
There is some difference of opinion whether this clause should be enforced by national
or by State authority, but surely that difference is not a very material one. If the slave is to
be surrendered, it can be of but little consequence to him or to others by which authority it
is done. And should anyone in any case be content that his oath shall go unkept on a merely
unsubstantial controversy as to how it shall be kept?
Again, in any law upon this subject ought not all the safeguards of liberty known in
civilized and humane jurisprudence to be introduced, so that a free man be not in any case
surrendered as a slave? And might it not be well at the same time to provide by law for the

enforcement of that clause in the Constitution which guarantees that “the citizens of each
State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States”?
I take the official oath to-day with no mental reservations and with no purpose to
construe the Constitution or laws by any hypercritical rules; and while I do not choose now
to specify particular acts of Congress as proper to be enforced, I do suggest that it will be
much safer for all, both in official and private stations, to conform to and abide by all those
acts which stand unrepealed than to violate any of them trusting to find impunity in having
them held to be unconstitutional.
It is seventy-two years since the first inauguration of a President under our National
Constitution. During that period fifteen different and greatly distinguished citizens have in
succession administered the executive branch of the Government. They have conducted it
through many perils, and generally with great success. Yet, with all this scope of precedent,
I now enter upon the same task for the brief constitutional term of four years under great
and peculiar difficulty. A disruption of the Federal Union, heretofore only menaced, is now
formidably attempted.
I hold that in contemplation of universal law and of the Constitution the Union of these
States is perpetual. Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all
national governments. It is safe to assert that no government proper ever had a provision
in its organic law for its own termination. Continue to execute all the express provisions of
our National Constitution, and the Union will endure forever, it being impossible to destroy
it except by some action not provided for in the instrument itself.
Again: if the United States be not a government proper, but an association of States in
the nature of contract merely, can it, as a contract, be peaceably unmade by less than all
the parties who made it? One party to a contract may violate it—break it, so to speak—but
does it not require all to lawfully rescind it?
Descending from these general principles, we find the proposition that, in legal
contemplation the Union is perpetual confirmed by the history of the Union itself. The
Union is much older than the Constitution. It was formed, in fact, by the Articles of
Association in 1774. It was matured and continued by the Declaration of Independence in
1776. It was further matured, and the faith of all the then thirteen States expressly plighted
and engaged that it should be perpetual, by the Articles of Confederation in 1778. And,
finally, in 1787 one of the declared objects for ordaining and establishing the Constitution
was “to form a more perfect Union.”
But if the destruction of the Union by one or by a part only of the States be lawfully
possible, the Union is less perfect than before the Constitution, having lost the vital element
of perpetuity.
It follows from these views that no State upon its own mere motion can lawfully get
out of the Union; that resolves and ordinances to that effect are legally void; and that acts

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of violence, within any State or States, against the authority of the United States, are
insurrectionary or revolutionary, according to circumstances.
I therefore consider that in view of the Constitution and the laws the Union is unbroken,
and to the extent of my ability, I shall take care, as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins
upon me, that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the States. Doing this I
deem to be only a simple duty on my part, and I shall perform it so far as practicable unless
my rightful masters, the American people, shall withhold the requisite means or in some
authoritative manner direct the contrary. I trust this will not be regarded as a menace, but
only as the declared purpose of the Union that it will constitutionally defend and maintain
itself.
In doing this there needs to be no bloodshed or violence, and there shall be none unless
it be forced upon the national authority. The power confided to me will be used to hold,
occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the government, and to collect
the duties and imposts; but beyond what may be necessary for these objects, there will be
no invasion, no using of force against or among the people anywhere. Where hostility to
the United States in any interior locality shall be so great and universal as to prevent
competent resident citizens from holding the Federal offices, there will be no attempt to
force obnoxious strangers among the people for that object. While the strict legal right may
exist in the Government to enforce the exercise of these offices, the attempt to do so would
be so irritating and so nearly impracticable withal that I deem it better to forego for the
time the uses of such offices.
The mails, unless repelled, will continue to be furnished in all parts of the Union. So
far as possible the people everywhere shall have that sense of perfect security which is
most favorable to calm thought and reflection. The course here indicated will be followed
unless current events and experience shall show a modification or change to be proper, and
in every case and exigency my best discretion will be exercised, according to circumstances
actually existing and with a view and a hope of a peaceful solution of the national troubles
and the restoration of fraternal sympathies and affections.
That there are persons in one section or another who seek to destroy the Union at all
events, and are glad of any pretext to do it, I will neither affirm nor deny; but if there be
such, I need address no word to them. To those, however, who really love the Union may
I not speak?
Before entering upon so grave a matter as the destruction of our national fabric, with
all its benefits, its memories, and its hopes, would it not be wise to ascertain precisely why
we do it? Will you hazard so desperate a step while there is any possibility that any portion
of the ills you fly from have no real existence? Will you, while the certain ills you fly to
are greater than all the real ones you fly from, will you risk the commission of so fearful a
mistake?
All profess to be content in the Union if all constitutional rights can be maintained. Is
it true, then, that any right plainly written in the Constitution has been denied? I think not.
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Happily the human mind is so constituted that no party can reach to the audacity of doing
this. Think, if you can, of a single instance in which a plainly written provision of the
Constitution has ever been denied. If by the mere force of numbers a majority should
deprive a minority of any clearly written constitutional right, it might in a moral point of
view justify revolution; certainly would if such a right were a vital one. But such is not our
case. All the vital rights of minorities and of individuals are so plainly assured to them by
affirmations and negations, guarantees and prohibitions, in the Constitution that
controversies never arise concerning them. But no organic law can ever be framed with a
provision specifically applicable to every question which may occur in practical
administration. No foresight can anticipate nor any document of reasonable length contain
express provisions for all possible questions. Shall fugitives from labor be surrendered by
national or by State authority? The Constitution does not expressly say. May Congress
prohibit slavery in the Territories? The Constitution does not expressly say. Must Congress
protect slavery in the Territories? The Constitution does not expressly say.
From questions of this class spring all our constitutional controversies, and we divide
upon them into majorities and minorities. If the minority will not acquiesce, the majority
must, or the Government must cease. There is no other alternative; for continuing the
Government is acquiescence on one side or the other. If a minority in such case will secede
rather than acquiesce, they make a precedent which in turn will divide and ruin them; for a
minority of their own will secede from them whenever a majority refuses to be controlled
by such minority. For instance, why may not any portion of a new confederacy a year or
two hence arbitrarily secede again, precisely as portions of the present Union now claim to
secede from it? All who cherish disunion sentiments are now being educated to the exact
temper of doing this.
Is there such perfect identity of interests among the States to compose a new union as
to produce harmony only and prevent renewed secession?
Plainly the central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy. A majority held in
restraint by constitutional checks and limitations, and always changing easily with
deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free
people. Whoever rejects it does of necessity fly to anarchy or to despotism. Unanimity is
impossible. The rule of a minority, as a permanent arrangement, is wholly inadmissible; so
that, rejecting the majority principle, anarchy or despotism in some form is all that is left.
I do not forget the position assumed by some that constitutional questions are to be
decided by the Supreme Court; nor do I deny that such decisions must be binding in any
case upon the parties to a suit, as to the object of that suit, while they are also entitled to
very high respect and consideration in all parallel cases by all other departments of the
Government. And while it is obviously possible that such decision may be erroneous in
any given case, still the evil effect following it, being limited to that particular case, with
the chance that it may be overruled and never become a precedent for other cases, can
better be borne than could the evils of a different practice. At the same time, the candid
citizen must confess that if the policy of the Government upon vital questions affecting the
whole people is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant they
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are made in ordinary litigation between parties in personal actions the people will have
ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent practically resigned their Government
into the hands of that eminent tribunal. Nor is there in this view any assault upon the court
or the judges. It is a duty from which they may not shrink to decide cases properly brought
before them, and it is no fault of theirs if others seek to turn their decisions to political
purposes.
One section of our country believes slavery is right and ought to be extended, while the
other believes it is wrong and ought not to be extended. This is the only substantial dispute.
The fugitive-slave clause of the Constitution and the law for the suppression of the foreign
slave trade are each as well enforced, perhaps, as any law can ever be in a community
where the moral sense of the people imperfectly supports the law itself. The great body of
the people abide by the dry legal obligation in both cases, and a few break over in each.
This, I think, cannot be perfectly cured, and it would be worse in both cases after the
separation of the sections than before. The foreign slave trade, now imperfectly suppressed,
would be ultimately revived without restriction, in one section, while fugitive slaves, now
only partially surrendered, would not be surrendered at all by the other.
Physically speaking, we cannot separate. We cannot remove our respective sections
from each other nor build an impassable wall between them. A husband and wife may be
divorced and go out of the presence and beyond the reach of each other, but the different
parts of our country cannot do this. They can not but remain face to face, and intercourse,
either amicable or hostile, must continue between them. Is it possible, then, to make that
intercourse more advantageous or more satisfactory after separation than before? Can
aliens make treaties easier than friends can make laws? Can treaties be more faithfully
enforced between aliens than laws can among friends? Suppose you go to war, you can not
fight always; and when, after much loss on both sides and no gain on either, you cease
fighting, the identical old questions, as to terms of intercourse, are again upon you.
This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they
shall grow weary of the existing Government, they can exercise their constitutional right
of amending it or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it. I cannot be
ignorant of the fact that many worthy and patriotic citizens are desirous of having the
National Constitution amended. While I make no recommendation of amendments, I fully
recognize the rightful authority of the people over the whole subject, to be exercised in
either of the modes prescribed in the instrument itself; and I should, under existing
circumstances, favor rather than oppose a fair opportunity being afforded the people to act
upon it. I will venture to add that to me the convention mode seems preferable, in that it
allows amendments to originate with the people themselves, instead of only permitting
them to take or reject propositions originated by others, not especially chosen for the
purpose, and which might not be precisely such as they would wish to either accept or
refuse. I understand a proposed amendment to the Constitution—which amendment,
however, I have not seen—has passed Congress, to the effect that the Federal Government
shall never interfere with the domestic institutions of the States, including that of persons
held to service. To avoid misconstruction of what I have said, I depart from my purpose
not to speak of particular amendments so far as to say that, holding such a provision to now
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be implied constitutional law, I have no objection to its being made express and
irrevocable.
The Chief Magistrate derives all his authority from the people, and they have conferred
none upon him to fix terms for the separation of the States. The people themselves can do
this also if they choose; but the Executive as such has nothing to do with it. His duty is to
administer the present Government, as it came to his hands and to transmit it unimpaired
by him to his successor.
Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is
there any better or equal hope in the world? In our present differences, is either party
without faith of being in the right? If the Almighty Ruler of Nations, with His eternal truth
and justice, be on your side of the North, or on yours of the South, that truth and that justice
will surely prevail by the judgment of this great tribunal of the American people.
By the frame of the Government under which we live this same people have wisely
given their public servants but little power for mischief, and have with equal wisdom
provided for the return of that little to their own hands at very short intervals. While the
people retain their virtue and vigilance no administration by any extreme of wickedness or
folly can very seriously injure the Government in the short space of four years.
My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and well upon this whole subject. Nothing
valuable can be lost by taking time. If there be an object to hurry any of you in hot haste to
a step which you would never take deliberately, that object will be frustrated by taking
time; but no good object can be frustrated by it. Such of you as are now dissatisfied still
have the old Constitution unimpaired, and, on the sensitive point, the laws of your own
framing under it; while the new Administration will have no immediate power, if it would,
to change either. If it were admitted that you who are dissatisfied hold the right side in the
dispute, there still is no single good reason for precipitate action. Intelligence, patriotism,
Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this favored land are
still competent to adjust in the best way all our present difficulty.
In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous
issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without
being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the
government, while I shall have the most solemn one to “preserve, protect, and defend it.”
I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though
passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of
memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and
hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when again
touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.

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Message to Congress in Special Session
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
With the firing on Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, on April 12, 1861, President
Lincoln faced a rebellion “too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial
proceedings.” Following the surrender of the fort, Lincoln initiated a number of military
measures. He called up the militia, instituted a blockade of Southern ports, and suspended
the writ of habeas corpus. He also convened Congress to meet in extra session on July 4,
1861, where he outlined the events that started the war and defended his actions.
How does Lincoln characterize the events leading up to the war? Who were the
aggressors? Why does Lincoln think it necessary to resist secession? Why is there no right
to secession, and how is it different from the right of revolution? How does Lincoln
understand the nature of the American union and the nature of the office he filled? How,
specifically, does he defend the suspension of habeas corpus? Did he have the authority to
take the actions that he did?
Having been convened on an extraordinary occasion, as authorized by the Constitution,
your attention is not called to any ordinary subject of legislation.
At the beginning of the present Presidential term, four months ago, the functions of the
Federal Government were found to be generally suspended within the several States of
South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Florida, excepting only
those of the Post Office Department.
Within these States, all the Forts, Arsenals, Dock-yards, Customhouses, and the like,
including the movable and stationary property in, and about them, had been seized, and
were held in open hostility to this Government, excepting only Forts Pickens, Taylor, and
Jefferson, on, and near the Florida coast, and Fort Sumter, in Charleston harbor, South
Carolina. The Forts thus seized had been put in improved condition; new ones had been
built; and armed forces had been organized, and were organizing, all avowedly with the
same hostile purpose.
The Forts remaining in the possession of the Federal government, in, and near, these
States, were either besieged or menaced by warlike preparations; and especially Fort
Sumter was nearly surrounded by well-protected hostile batteries, with guns equal in
quality to the best of its own, and outnumbering the latter as perhaps ten to one. A
disproportionate share, of the Federal muskets and rifles, had somehow found their way
into these States, and had been seized, to be used against the government. Accumulations
of the public revenue, lying within them, had been seized for the same object. The Navy
was scattered in distant seas; leaving but a very small part of it within the immediate reach
of the government. Officers of the Federal Army and Navy, had resigned in great numbers;
and, of those resigning, and large proportion had taken up arms against the government.
Simultaneously, and in connection, with all this, the purpose to sever the Federal Union,
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was openly avowed. In accordance with this purpose, an ordinance had been adopted in
each of these States, declaring the States, respectively, to be separated from the National
Union. A formula for instituting a combined government of these states had been
promulgated; and this illegal organization, in the character of confederate States was
already invoking recognition, aid, and intervention, from Foreign Powers.
Finding this condition of things, and believing it to be an imperative duty upon the
incoming Executive, to prevent, if possible, the consummation of such attempt to destroy
the Federal Union, a choice of means to that end became indispensable. This choice was
made; and was declared in the Inaugural address. The policy chosen looked to the
exhaustion of all peaceful measures, before a resort to any stronger ones. It sought only to
hold the public places and property, not already wrested from the Government, and to
collect the revenue; relying for the rest, on time, discussion, and the ballot-box. It promised
a continuance of the mails, at government expense, to the very people who were resisting
the government; and it gave repeated pledges against any disturbance to any of the people,
or any of their rights. Of all that which a president might constitutionally, and justifiably,
do in such a case, everything was foreborne, without which, it was believed possible to
keep the government on foot.
On the 5th of March, (the present incumbent’s first full day in office) a letter of Major
Anderson, commanding at Fort Sumter, written on the 28th of February, and received at
the War Department on the 4th of March, was, by that Department, placed in his hands.
This letter expressed the professional opinion of the writer, that reinforcements could not
be thrown into that Fort within the time for his relief, rendered necessary by the limited
supply of provisions, and with a view of holding possession of the same, with a force of
less than twenty thousand good, and well-disciplined men. This opinion was concurred in
by all the officers of his command; and their memoranda on the subject, were made
enclosures of Major Anderson’s letter. The whole was immediately laid before Lieutenant
General Scott, who at once concurred with Major Anderson in opinion. On reflection,
however, he took full time, consulting with other officers, both of the Army and the Navy;
and, at the end of four days, came reluctantly, but decidedly, to the same conclusion as
before. He also stated at the same time that no such sufficient force was then at the control
of the Government, or could be raised, and brought to the ground, within the time when
the provisions in the Fort would be exhausted. In a purely military point of view, this
reduced the duty of the administration, in the case, to the mere matter of getting the garrison
safely out of the Fort.
It was believed, however, that to so abandon that position, under the circumstances,
would be utterly ruinous; that the necessity under which it was to be done, would not be
fully understood—that, by many, it would be construed as a part of a voluntary policy—
that, at home, it would discourage the friends of the Union, embolden its adversaries, and
go far to insure to the latter, a recognition abroad—that, in fact, it would be our national
destruction consummated. This could not be allowed. Starvation was not yet upon the
garrison; and ere it would be reached, Fort Pickens might be reinforced. This last, would
be a clear indication of policy, and would better enable the country to accept the evacuation
of Fort Sumter, as a military necessity. An order was at once directed to be sent for the
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landing of the troops from the Steamship Brooklyn, into Fort Pickens. This order could not
go by land, but must take the longer, and slower route by sea. The first return news from
the order was received just one week before the fall of Fort Sumter. The news itself was,
that the officer commanding the Sabine, to which vessel the troops had been transferred
from the Brooklyn, acting upon some quasi armistice of the late administration, (and of the
existence of which, the present administration, up to the time the order was dispatched, had
only too vague and uncertain rumors, to fix attention) had refused to land the troops. To
now re-inforce Fort Pickens, before a crisis would be reached at Fort Sumter was
impossible—rendered so by the near exhaustion of provisions in the latter-named Fort. In
precaution against such a conjuncture, the government had, a few days before, commenced
preparing an expedition, as well adapted as might be, to relieve Fort Sumter, which
expedition was intended to be ultimately used, or not, according to circumstances. The
strongest anticipated case, for using it, was now presented; and it was resolved to send it
forward. As had been intended, in this contingency, it was also resolved to notify the
Governor of South Carolina, that he might except an attempt would be made to provision
the Fort; and that, if the attempt should not be resisted, there would be no effort to throw
in men, arms, or ammunition, without further notice, or in case of an attack upon the Fort.
This notice was accordingly given; whereupon the Fort was attacked, and bombarded to its
fall, without even awaiting the arrival of the provisioning expedition.
It is thus seen that the assault upon, and reduction of, Fort Sumter, was, in no sense, a
matter of self-defense on the part of the assailants. They well knew that the garrison in the
Fort could, by no possibility, commit aggression upon them. They knew—they were
expressly notified—that the giving of bread to the few brave and hungry men of the
garrison, was all which would on that occasion be attempted, unless themselves, by
resisting so much, should provoke more. They knew that this Government desired to keep
the garrison in the Fort, not to assail them, but merely to maintain visible possession, and
thus to preserve the Union from actual, and immediate dissolution—trusting, as hereinbefore stated, to time, discussion, and the ballot-box, for final adjustment; and they
assailed, and reduced the Fort, for precisely the reverse object—to drive out the visible
authority of the Federal Union, and thus force it to immediate dissolution.
That this was their object, the Executive well understood; and having said to them in
the inaugural address, “You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors,”
he took pains, not only to keep this declaration good, but also to keep the case so free from
the power of ingenious sophistry, as that the world should not be able to misunderstand it.
By the affair at Fort Sumter, with its surrounding circumstances, that point was reached.
Then, and thereby, the assailants of the Government, began the conflict of arms, without a
gun in sight, or in expectancy, to return their fire, save only the few in the Fort, sent to that
harbor, years before, for their own protection, and still ready to give that protection, in
whatever was lawful. In this act, discarding all else, they have forced upon the country, the
distinct issue: “Immediate dissolution, or blood.”
And this issue embraces more than the fate of these United States. It presents to the
whole family of man, the question, whether a constitutional republic, or a democracy—a
government of the people, by the same people—can, or cannot, maintain its territorial
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integrity, against its own domestic foes. It presents the question, whether discontented
individuals, too few in numbers to control administration, according to organic law, in any
case, can always, upon the pretenses made in this case, or on any other pretenses, or
arbitrarily, without any pretense, break up their Government, and thus practically put an
end to free government upon the earth. It forces us to ask: “Is there, in all republics, this
inherent, and fatal weakness?” “Must a government, of necessity, be too strong for the
liberties of its own people, or too weak to maintain its own existence?”
So viewing the issue, no choice was left but to call out the war power of the
Government; and so to resist force, employed for its destruction, by force, for its
preservation.
The call was made; and the response of the country was most gratifying; surpassing, in
unanimity and spirit, the most sanguine expectation. Yet none of the States commonly
called Slave states, except Delaware, gave a Regiment through regular State organization.
A few regiments have been organized within some others of those states, by individual
enterprise, and received into the government service. Of course the seceded States, so
called, (and to which Texas had been joined about the time of the inauguration,) gave no
troops to the cause of the Union. The border States, so called, were not uniform in their
actions; some of them being almost for the Union, while in others—as Virginia, North
Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas—the Union sentiment was nearly repressed, and
silenced.
The course taken in Virginia was the most remarkable—perhaps the most important. A
convention, elected by the people of that State, to consider this very question of disrupting
the Federal Union, was in session at the capital of Virginia when Fort Sumter fell. To this
body the people had chosen a large majority of professed Union men. Almost immediately
after the fall of Sumter, many members of that majority went over to the original disunion
minority, and, with them, adopted an ordinance for withdrawing the State from the Union.
Whether this change was wrought by their great approval of the assault upon Sumter, or
their great resentment at the government’s resistance to that assault, is not definitely
known. Although they submitted the ordinance, for ratification, to vote of the people, to be
taken on a day then somewhat more than a month distant, the convention, and the
Legislature, (Which was also in session at the same time and place) with leading men of
the State, not members of either, immediately commenced acting, as if the State were
already out of the Union. They pushed military preparations vigorously forward all over
the state. They seized the United States Armory at Harper’s Ferry, and the Navy-yard at
Gosport, near Norfolk. They received—perhaps invited—into their state, large bodies of
troops, with their warlike appointments, from the so-called seceded States. They formally
entered into a treaty of temporary alliance, and co-operation with the so-called
“Confederate States,” and sent members to their Congress at Montgomery. And, finally,
they permitted the insurrectionary government to be transferred to their capital at
Richmond.
The people of Virginia have thus allowed this giant insurrection to make its nest within
her borders; and this government has no choice left but to deal with it, where it finds it.
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And it has the less regret, as the loyal citizens have, in due form, claimed its protection.
Those loyal citizens, this government is bound to recognize, and protect, as being Virginia.
In the border States, so called—in fact, the middle states—there are those who favor a
policy which they call “armed neutrality”—that is, an arming of those states to prevent the
Union forces passing one way, or the disunion, the other, over their soil. This would be
disunion completed. Figuratively speaking, it would be the building of an impassable wall
along the line of separation. And yet, not quite an impassable one; for, under the guise of
neutrality, it would tie the hands of the Union men, and freely pass supplies from among
them, to the insurrectionists, which it could not do as an open enemy. At a stroke, it would
take all the trouble off the hands of secession, except only what proceeds from the external
blockade. It would do for the disunionists that which, of all things, they most desire—feed
them well, and give them disunion without a struggle of their own. It recognizes no fidelity
to the Constitution, no obligation to maintain the Union; and while very many who have
favored it are, doubtless, loyal citizens, it is, nevertheless, treason in effect.
Recurring to the action of the government, it may be stated that, at first, a call was made
for seventy-five thousand militia; and rapidly following this, a proclamation was issued for
closing the ports of the insurrectionary districts by proceedings in the nature of Blockade.
So far all was believed to be strictly legal. At this point the insurrectionists announced their
purpose to enter upon the practice of privateering. Other calls were made for volunteers, to
serve three years, unless sooner discharged; and also for large additions to the regular Army
and Navy. These measures, whether strictly legal or not, were ventured upon, under what
appeared to be a popular demand, and a public necessity; trusting, then as now, that
Congress would readily ratify them. It is believed that nothing has been done beyond the
constitutional competency of Congress.
Soon after the first call for militia, it was considered a duty to authorize the
Commanding General, in proper cases, according to his discretion, to suspend the privilege
of the writ of habeas corpus; or, in other words, to arrest, and detain, without resort to the
ordinary processes and forms of law, such individuals as he might deem dangerous to the
public safety. This authority has purposely been exercised but very sparingly. Nevertheless,
the legality and propriety of what has been done under it, are questioned; and the attention
of the country has been called to the proposition that one who is sworn to “take care that
the laws be faithfully executed,” should not himself violate them. Of course some
consideration was given to the questions of power, and propriety, before this matter was
acted upon. The whole of the laws which were required to be faithfully executed, were
being resisted, and failing of execution, in nearly one-third of the States. Must they be
allowed to finally fail of execution, even had it been perfectly clear, that by the use of the
means necessary to their execution, some single law, made in such extreme tenderness of
the citizen’s liberty, that practically, it relieves more of the guilty, than of the innocent,
should, to a very limited extent, be violated? To state the question more directly, are all the
laws, but one, to go unexecuted, and the government itself go to pieces, lest that one be
violated? Even in such a case, would not the official oath be broken, if the government
should be overthrown, when it was believed that disregarding the single law, would tend
to preserve it? But it was not believed that this question was presented. It was not believed
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that any law was violated. The provision of the Constitution that “The privilege of the writ
of habeas corpus, shall not be suspended unless when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the
public safety may require it,” is equivalent to a provision—is a provision—that such
privilege may be suspended when, in cases of rebellion, or invasion, the public safety does
require it. It was decided that we have a case of rebellion, and that the public safety does
require the qualified suspension of the privilege of the writ which was authorized to be
made. Now it is insisted that Congress, and not the Executive, is vested with this power.
But the Constitution itself, is silent as to which, or who, is to exercise the power; and as
the provision was plainly made for a dangerous emergency, it cannot be believed the
framers of the instrument intended, that in every case, the danger should run its course,
until Congress could be called together; the very assembling of which might be prevented,
as was intended in this case, by the rebellion.
No more extended argument is now offered; as an opinion, at some length, will
probably be presented by the Attorney General. Whether there shall be any legislation upon
the subject, and if any, what, is submitted entirely to the better judgment of Congress.
The forbearance of this government had been so extraordinary, and so long continued,
as to lead some foreign nations to shape their action as if they supposed the early
destruction of our national Union was probable. While this, on discovery, gave the
Executive some concern, he is now happy to say that the sovereignty, and rights of the
United States, are now everywhere practically respected by foreign powers; and a general
sympathy with the country is manifested throughout the world.
The reports of the Secretaries of the Treasury, War, and the Navy, will give the
information in detail deemed necessary, and convenient for your deliberation, and action;
while the Executive, and all the Departments, will stand ready to supply omissions, or to
communicate new facts, considered important for you to know.
It is now recommended that you give the legal means for making this contest a short,
and a decisive one; that you place at the control of the government, for the work, at least
four hundred thousand men, and four hundred millions of dollars. That number of men is
about one tenth of those of proper ages within the regions where, apparently, all are willing
to engage; and the sum is less than a twenty-third part of the money value owned by the
men who seem ready to devote the whole. A debt of six hundred millions of dollars now,
is a less sum per head, than was the debt of our revolution, when we came out of that
struggle; and the money value in the country now, bears even a greater proportion to what
it was then, than does the population. Surely each man has as strong a motive now, to
preserve our liberties, as each had then, to establish them.
A right result, at this time, will be worth more to the world, than ten times the men, and
ten times the money. The evidence reaching us from the country, leaves no doubt, that the
material for the work is abundant; and that it needs only the hand of legislation to give it
legal sanction, and the hand of the Executive to give it practical shape and efficiency. One
of the greatest perplexities of the government, is to avoid receiving troops faster than it can

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provide for them. In a word, the people will save their government, if the government itself,
will do its part, only indifferently well.
It might seem, at first thought, to be of little difference whether the present movement
at the South be called “secession” or “rebellion.” The movers, however, well understand
the difference. At the beginning, they knew they could never raise their treason to any
respectable magnitude, by any name which implies violation of law. They knew their
people possessed as much of moral sense, as much of devotion to law and order, and as
much pride in, and reverence for, the history, and government, of their common country,
as any other civilized, and patriotic people. They knew they could make no advancement
directly in the teeth of these strong and noble sentiments. Accordingly they commenced by
an insidious debauching of the public mind. They invented an ingenious sophism, which,
if conceded, was followed by perfectly logical steps, through all the incidents, to the
complete destruction of the Union. The sophism itself is, that any state of the Union may,
consistently with the national Constitution, and therefore lawfully, and peacefully,
withdraw from the Union, without the consent of the Union, or of any other state. The little
disguise that the supposed right is to be exercised only for just cause, themselves to be the
sole judge of its justice, is too thin to merit any notice.
With rebellion thus sugar-coated, they have been drugging the public mind of their
section for more than thirty years; and, until at length, they have brought many good men
to a willingness to take up arms against the government the day after some assemblage of
men have enacted the farcical pretense of taking their State out of the Union, who could
have been brought to no such thing the day before.
This sophism derives much—perhaps the whole—of its currency, from the assumption,
that there is some omnipotent, and sacred supremacy, pertaining to a State—to each State
of our Federal Union. Our States have neither more, nor less power, than that reserved to
them, in the Union, by the Constitution—no one of them ever having been a State out of
the Union. The original ones passed into the Union even before they cast off their British
colonial dependence; and the new ones each came into the Union directly from a condition
of dependence, excepting Texas. And even Texas, in its temporary independence, was
never designated a State. The new ones only took the designation of States, on coming into
the Union, while that name was first adopted for the old ones, in, and by, the Declaration
of Independence. Therein the “United Colonies” were declared to be “Free and
Independent States”; but, even then, the object plainly was not to declare their
independence of one another, or of the Union; but directly the contrary, as their mutual
pledge, and their mutual action, before, at the time, and afterwards, abundantly show. The
express plighting of faith, by each and all of the original thirteen, in the Articles of
Confederation, two years later, that the Union shall be perpetual, is most conclusive.
Having never been States, either in substance, or in name, outside of the Union, whence
this magical omnipotence of “State rights,” asserting a claim of power to lawfully destroy
the Union itself? Much is said about the “sovereignty” of the States; but the word, even, is
not in the national Constitution; nor, as is believed, in any of the State constitutions. What
is a “sovereignty,” in the political sense of the term? Would it be far wrong to define it “A
political community, without a political superior”? Tested by this, no one of our States,
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except Texas, ever was a sovereignty. And even Texas gave up the character on coming
into the Union; by which act, she acknowledged the Constitution of the United States, and
the laws and treaties of the United States made in pursuance of the Constitution, to be, for
her, the supreme law of the land. The States have their status IN the Union, and they have
no other legal status. If they break from this, they can only do so against law, and by
revolution. The Union, and not themselves separately, procured their independence, and
their liberty. By conquest, or purchase, the Union gave each of them, whatever of
independence, and liberty, it has. The Union is older than any of the States; and, in fact, it
created them as States. Originally, some dependent colonies made the Union; and, in turn,
the Union threw off their old dependence, for them, and made them States, such as they
are. Not one of them ever had a State constitution, independent of the Union. Of course, it
is not forgotten that all the new States framed their constitutions, before they entered the
Union; nevertheless, dependent upon, and preparatory to, coming into the Union.
Unquestionably the States have the powers, and rights, reserved to them in, and by the
National Constitution; but among these, surely, are not included all conceivable powers,
however mischievous, or destructive; but, at most, such only, as were known in the world,
at the time, as governmental powers; and certainly, a power to destroy the government
itself, had never been known as a governmental—as a merely administrative power. This
relative matter of National power, and State rights, as a principle, is no other than the
principle of generality, and locality. Whatever concerns the whole, should be confided to
the whole—to the general government; while, whatever concerns only the State, should be
left exclusively, to the State. This is all there is of original principle about it. Whether the
National Constitution, in defining boundaries between the two, has applied the principle
with exact accuracy, is not to be questioned. We are all bound by that defining, without
question.
What is now combatted, is the position that secession is consistent with the
Constitution—is lawful, and peaceful. It is not contended that there is any express law for
it; and nothing should ever be implied as law, which leads to unjust, or absurd
consequences. The nation purchased, with money, the countries out of which several of
these States were formed. Is it just that they shall go off without leave, and without
refunding? The nation paid very large sums, (in the aggregate, I believe, nearly a hundred
millions) to relieve Florida of the aboriginal tribes. Is it just that she shall now be off
without consent, or without making any return? The nation is now in debt for money
applied to the benefit of these so-called seceding States, in common with the rest. Is it just,
either that creditors shall go unpaid, or the remaining States pay the whole? A part of the
present national debt was contracted to pay the old debts of Texas. Is it just that she shall
leave, and pay no part of this herself?
Again, if one State may secede, so may another; and when all shall have seceded, none
is left to pay the debts. Is this quite just to creditors? Did we notify them of this sage view
of ours, when we borrowed their money? If we now recognize this doctrine, by allowing
the seceders to go in peace, it is difficult to see what we can do, if others choose to go, or
to extort terms upon which they will promise to remain.

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The seceders insist that our Constitution admits of secession. They have assumed to
make a National Constitution of their own, in which, of necessity, they have either
discarded, or retained, the right of secession, as they insist, it exists in ours. If they have
discarded it, they thereby admit that, on principle, it ought not to be in ours. If they have
retained it, by their own construction of ours they show that to be consistent they must
secede from one another, whenever they shall find it the easiest way of settling their debts,
or effecting any other selfish, or unjust object. The principle itself is one of disintegration,
and upon which no government can possibly endure.
If all the States, save one, should assert the power to drive that one out of the Union, it
is presumed the whole class of seceder politicians would at once deny the power, and
denounce the act as the greatest outrage upon State rights. But suppose that precisely the
same act, instead of being called “driving the one out,” should be called “the seceding of
the others from that one,” it would be exactly what the seceders claim to do; unless, indeed,
they make the point, that the one, because it is a minority, may rightfully do, what the
others, because they are a majority, may not rightfully do. These politicians are subtle, and
profound, on the rights of minorities. They are not partial to that power which made the
Constitution, and speaks from the preamble, calling itself “We, the People.”
It may well be questioned whether there is, to-day, a majority of the legally qualified
voters of any State, except perhaps South Carolina, in favor of disunion. There is much
reason to believe that the Union men are the majority in many, if not in every other one, of
the so-called seceded States. The contrary has not been demonstrated in any one of them.
It is ventured to affirm this, even of Virginia and Tennessee; for the result of an election,
held in military camps, where the bayonets are all on one side of the question voted upon,
can scarcely be considered as demonstrating popular sentiment. At such an election, all
that large class who are, at once, for the Union, and against coercion, would be coerced to
vote against the Union.
It may be affirmed, without extravagance, that the free institutions we enjoy, have
developed the powers, and improved the condition, of our whole people, beyond any
example in the world. Of this we now have a striking, and an impressive illustration. So
large an army as the government has now on foot, was never before known, without a
soldier in it, but who had taken his place there, of his own free choice. But more than this:
there are many single Regiments whose members, one and another, possess full practical
knowledge of all the arts, sciences, professions, and whatever else, whether useful or
elegant, is known in the world; and there is scarcely one, from which there could not be
selected, a President, a Cabinet, a Congress, and perhaps a Court, abundantly competent to
administer the government itself. Nor do I say this is not true, also, in the army of our late
friends, now adversaries, in this contest; but if it is, so much better the reason why the
government, which has conferred such benefits on both them and us, should not be broken
up. Whoever, in any section, proposes to abandon such a government, would do well to
consider, in deference to what principle it is, that he does it—what better he is likely to get
in its stead—whether the substitute will give, or be intended to give, so much of good to
the people. There are some foreshadowings on this subject. Our adversaries have adopted
some Declarations of Independence; in which, unlike the good old one, penned by
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Jefferson, they omit the words “all men are created equal.” Why? They have adopted a
temporary national constitution, in the preamble of which, unlike our good old one, signed
by Washington, they omit “We, the People,” and substitute “We, the deputies of the
sovereign and independent States.” Why? Why this deliberate pressing out of view, the
rights of men, and the authority of the people?
This is essentially a People’s contest. On the side of the Union, it is a struggle for
maintaining in the world, that form, and substance of government, whose leading object is,
to elevate the condition of men—to lift artificial weights from all shoulders—to clear the
paths of laudable pursuit for all—to afford all, an unfettered start, and a fair chance, in the
race of life. Yielding to partial, and temporary departures, from necessity, this is the leading
object of the government for whose existence we contend.
I am most happy to believe that the plain people understand, and appreciate this. It is
worthy of note, that while in this, the government’s hour of trial, large numbers of those in
the Army and Navy, who have been favored with the offices, have resigned, and proved
false to the hand which had pampered them, not one common soldier, or common sailor is
known to have deserted his flag.
Great honor is due to those officers who remain true, despite the example of their
treacherous associates; but the greatest honor, and most important fact of all, is the
unanimous firmness of the common soldiers, and common sailors. To the last man, so far
as known, they have successfully resisted the traitorous efforts of those, whose commands,
but an hour before, they obeyed as absolute law. This is the patriotic instinct of the plain
people. They understand, without an argument, that destroying the government, which was
made by Washington, means no good to them.
Our popular government has often been called an experiment. Two points in it, our
people have already settled—the successful establishing, and the successful administering
of it. One still remains—its successful maintenance against a formidable [internal] attempt
to overthrow it. It is now for them to demonstrate to the world, that those who can fairly
carry an election, can also suppress a rebellion—that ballots are the rightful, and peaceful,
successors of bullets; and that when ballots have fairly, and constitutionally, decided, there
can be no successful appeal, back to bullets; that there can be no successful appeal, except
to ballots themselves, at succeeding elections. Such will be a great lesson of peace; teaching
men that what they cannot take by an election, neither can they take it by a war—teaching
all, the folly of being the beginners of a war.
Lest there be some uneasiness in the minds of candid men, as to what is to be the course
of the government, towards the Southern States, after the rebellion shall have been
suppressed, the Executive deems it proper to say, it will be his purpose then, as ever, to be
guided by the Constitution, and the laws; and that he probably will have no different
understanding of the powers, and duties of the Federal government, relatively to the rights
of the States, and the people, under the Constitution, than that expressed in the inaugural
address.

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He desires to preserve the government, that it may be administered for all, as it was
administered by the men who made it. Loyal citizens everywhere, have the right to claim
this of their government; and the government has no right to withhold, or neglect it. It is
not perceived that, in giving it, there is any coercion, any conquest, or any subjugation, in
any just sense of those terms.
The Constitution provides, and all the States have accepted the provision, that “The
United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of
government.” But, if a State may lawfully go out of the Union, having done so, it may also
discard the republican form of government; so that to prevent its going out, is an
indispensable means, to the end, of maintaining the guaranty mentioned; and when an end
is lawful and obligatory, the indispensable means to it, are also lawful, and obligatory.
It was with the deepest regret that the Executive found the duty of employing the warpower, in defense of the government, forced upon him. He could but perform this duty, or
surrender the existence of the government. No compromise, by public servants, could, in
this case, be a cure; not that compromises are not often proper, but that no popular
government can long survive a marked precedent, that those who carry an election, can
only save the government from immediate destruction, by giving up the main point, upon
which the people gave the election. The people themselves, and not their servants, can
safely reverse their own deliberate decisions. As a private citizen, the Executive could not
have consented that these institutions shall perish; much less could he, in betrayal of so
vast, and so sacred a trust, as these free people had confided to him. He felt that he had no
moral right to shrink; nor even to count the chances of his own life, in what might follow.
In full view of his great responsibility, he has, so far, done what he has deemed his duty.
You will now, according to your own judgment, perform yours. He sincerely hopes that
your views, and your action, may so accord with his, as to assure all faithful citizens, who
have been disturbed in their rights, of a certain, and speedy restoration to them, under the
Constitution, and the laws. And having thus chosen our course, without guile, and with
pure purpose, let us renew our trust in God, and go forward without fear, and with manly
hearts.

94

Open Letter to Horace Greeley
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
In August 1862, Horace Greeley, a Lincoln supporter and abolitionist, published an
editorial in his newspaper, the New York Tribune, in the form of an open letter to the
president. The editorial, titled “The Prayer of Twenty Millions,” claimed to speak on
behalf of Northern citizens loyal to the Union, and demanded that Lincoln take immediate
action against slavery. Lincoln wrote this reply to Greeley, also published in the Tribune,
while a draft of the Emancipation Proclamation already lay in his desk drawer.
Why is Lincoln’s “paramount objective” preserving the Union and not freeing the
slaves? What does Lincoln mean by “the Union as it was”? Why might he think he had to
first save the Union before emancipation could take place? What distinction does Lincoln
make between “official” duty and “personal” wishes?
Executive Mansion,
Washington, August 22, 1862.
Hon. Horace Greeley:
Dear Sir.
I have just read yours of the 19th. addressed to myself through the New-York Tribune.
If there be in it any statements, or assumptions of fact, which I may know to be erroneous,
I do not, now and here, controvert them. If there be in it any inferences which I may believe
to be falsely drawn, I do not now and here, argue against them. If there be perceptible in it
an impatient and dictatorial tone, I waive it in deference to an old friend, whose heart I
have always supposed to be right.
As to the policy I “seem to be pursuing” as you say, I have not meant to leave any one
in doubt.
I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The
sooner the national authority can be restored; the nearer the Union will be “the Union as it
was.” If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they could at the same time
save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union
unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount
object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery.
If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by
freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others
alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I
believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it
would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts
the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I

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shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as
they shall appear to be true views.
I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no
modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men every where could be free.
Yours,
A. Lincoln.

96

Chiefly About War-Matters by a Peaceable Man
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
In March 1862, the novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–64), along with his publisher,
traveled to Washington, DC to see firsthand the nation at war. A staunch Democrat,
Hawthorne was ambivalent about the war, and in his essay, he recounts his journey with
biting observations of the government, the military, and the conduct of the war. Published
in The Atlantic under the pseudonym of “A Peaceable Man,” the essay was partially
censored by the magazine’s editor. Among the sections that were removed is this humorous
description of President Lincoln. “The sketch appears to have been written in a benign
spirit,” noted the editor, “and perhaps conveys a not inaccurate impression of its august
subject; but it lacks reverence.”
Why does Hawthorne dwell so long on Lincoln’s physical appearance, and why does
he call the president “Uncle Abe”? How does Hawthorne’s choice of language (e.g.,
physiognomy, supernumeraries, deputation) serve to complete his portrait of the president?
What do you make of the anecdote about the whip? Is Hawthorne’s unvarnished portrait
of Lincoln entirely unfavorable? What, by the end, is Hawthorne’s overall impression of
Lincoln? Do you think Lincoln would have objected to this portrayal? Why might Lincoln
have cultivated such an image of himself?
By and by there was a little stir on the staircase and in the passage-way, and in lounged a
tall, loose-jointed figure, of an exaggerated Yankee port and demeanor, whom (as being
about the homeliest man I ever saw, yet by no means repulsive or disagreeable) it was
impossible not to recognize as Uncle Abe.
Unquestionably, Western man though he be, and Kentuckian by birth, President
Lincoln is the essential representative of all Yankees, and the veritable specimen,
physically, of what the world seems determined to regard as our characteristic qualities. It
is the strangest and yet the fittest thing in the jumble of human vicissitudes, that he, out of
so many millions, unlooked for, unselected by any intelligible process that could be based
upon his genuine qualities, unknown to those who chose him, and unsuspected of what
endowments may adapt him for his tremendous responsibility, should have found the way
open for him to fling his lank personality into the chair of state,—where, I presume, it was
his first impulse to throw his legs on the council-table, and tell the Cabinet Ministers a
story. There is no describing his lengthy awkwardness, nor the uncouthness of his
movement, and yet it seemed as if I had been in the habit of seeing him daily, and had
shaken hands with him a thousand times in some village street; so true was he to the aspect
of the pattern American, though with a certain extravagance which, possibly, I exaggerated
still further by the delighted eagerness with which I took it in. If put to guess his calling
and livelihood, I should have taken him for a country schoolmaster as soon as anything
else. He was dressed in a rusty black frock-coat and pantaloons, unbrushed, and worn so
faithfully that the suit had adapted itself to the curves and angularities of his figure, and
had grown to be an outer skin of the man. He had shabby slippers on his feet. His hair was
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black, still unmixed with gray, stiff, somewhat bushy, and had apparently been acquainted
with neither brush nor comb that morning, after the disarrangement of the pillow; and as
to a night-cap, Uncle Abe probably knows nothing of such effeminacies. His complexion
is dark and sallow, betokening, I fear, an insalubrious atmosphere around the White House;
he has thick black eyebrows and an impending brow; his nose is large, and the lines about
his mouth are very strongly defined.
The whole physiognomy is as coarse a one as you would meet anywhere in the length
and breadth of the States; but, withal, it is redeemed, illuminated, softened, and brightened
by a kindly though serious look out of his eyes, and an expression of homely sagacity, that
seems weighted with rich results of village experience. A great deal of native sense; no
bookish cultivation, no refinement; honest at heart, and thoroughly so, and yet, in some
sort, sly,—at least, endowed with a sort of tact and wisdom that are akin to craft, and would
impel him, I think, to take an antagonist in flank rather than to make a bull-run at him right
in front. But, on the whole, I like this sallow, queer, sagacious visage, with the homely
human sympathies that warmed it; and, for my small share in the matter, would as lief have
Uncle Abe for a ruler as any man whom it would have been practicable to put in his place.
Immediately on his entrance the President accosted our member of Congress, who had
us in charge, and, with a comical twist of his face, made some jocular remark about the
length of his breakfast. He then greeted us all round, not waiting for an introduction, but
shaking and squeezing everybody’s hand with the utmost cordiality, whether the
individual’s name was announced to him or not. His manner towards us was wholly without
pretense, but yet had a kind of natural dignity, quite sufficient to keep the forwardest of us
from clapping him on the shoulder and asking him for a story. A mutual acquaintance being
established, our leader took the whip out of its case, and began to read the address of
presentation. The whip was an exceedingly long one, its handle wrought in ivory (by some
artist in the Massachusetts State Prison, I believe), and ornamented with a medallion of the
President, and other equally beautiful devices; and along its whole length there was a
succession of golden bands and ferrules. The address was shorter than the whip, but equally
well made, consisting chiefly of an explanatory description of these artistic designs, and
closing with a hint that the gift was a suggestive and emblematic one, and that the President
would recognize the use to which such an instrument should be put.
This suggestion gave Uncle Abe rather a delicate task in his reply, because, slight as
the matter seemed, it apparently called for some declaration, or intimation, or faint
foreshadowing of policy in reference to the conduct of the war, and the final treatment of
the Rebels. But the President’s Yankee aptness and not-to-be-caughtness stood him in good
stead, and he jerked or wiggled himself out of the dilemma with an uncouth dexterity that
was entirely in character; although, without his gesticulation of eye and mouth,—and
especially the flourish of the whip, with which he imagined himself touching up a pair of
fat horses,—I doubt whether his words would be worth recording, even if I could remember
them. The gist of the reply was, that he accepted the whip as an emblem of peace, not
punishment; and, this great affair over, we retired out of the presence in high good-humor,
only regretting that we could not have seen the President sit down and fold up his legs
(which is said to be a most extraordinary spectacle), or have heard him tell one of those
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delectable stories for which he is so celebrated. A good many of them are afloat upon the
common talk of Washington, and are certainly the aptest, pithiest, and funniest little things
imaginable; though, to be sure, they smack of the frontier freedom, and would not always
bear repetition in a drawing-room, or on the immaculate page of the Atlantic.
Good Heavens! what liberties have I been taking with one of the potentates of the earth,
and the man on whose conduct more important consequences depend than on that of any
other historical personage of the century! But with whom is an American citizen entitled
to take a liberty, if not with his own chief magistrate? However, lest the above allusions to
President Lincoln’s little peculiarities (already well known to the country and to the world)
should be misinterpreted, I deem it proper to say a word or two in regard to him, of
unfeigned respect and measurable confidence. He is evidently a man of keen faculties, and,
what is still more to the purpose, of powerful character. As to his integrity, the people have
that intuition of it which is never deceived. Before he actually entered upon his great office,
and for a considerable time afterwards, there is no reason to suppose that he adequately
estimated the gigantic task about to be imposed on him, or, at least, had any distinct idea
how it was to be managed; and I presume there may have been more than one veteran
politician who proposed to himself to take the power out of President Lincoln’s hands into
his own, leaving our honest friend only the public responsibility for the good or ill success
of the career. The extremely imperfect development of his statesmanly qualities, at that
period, may have justified such designs. But the President is teachable by events, and has
now spent a year in a very arduous course of education; he has a flexible mind, capable of
much expansion, and convertible towards far loftier studies and activities than those of his
early life; and if he came to Washington a back-woods humorist, he has already
transformed himself into as good a statesman (to speak moderately) as his prime-minister.

99

Emancipation Proclamation
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
The final version of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation took effect on January 1, 1863.
The document declares that, “all persons held as slaves . . . are, and henceforward shall
be set free.” Arguably the most provocative document in Lincoln’s presidency, its signing
was met with both hostility and jubilation. Although the Proclamation is often thought to
have freed slaves throughout the country, it applied only to the states that had seceded
from the Union, leaving slavery untouched in the loyal border states. Despite its limited
scope, it fundamentally transformed the character of the Civil War. The Proclamation also
opened the door for African Americans to enlist in the Union Army. Though he was at first
unsure about the Proclamation’s public reception, on the day he approved this final
version, Lincoln noted, “I never, in my life, felt more certain that I was doing right, than I
do in signing this paper.”
Upon what authority does Lincoln issue this Proclamation? Why is emancipation
proclaimed as a “fit and necessary war measure”? Why does the Proclamation only apply
to slaves in certain states? What does Lincoln encourage these freed slaves to do and to
refrain from doing? How are these provisions expected to contribute to the Union war
effort? How does language of this document contrast with that of Lincoln’s more famous
speeches like the Gettysburg Address? Why might the language of the Proclamation be
more appropriate in this situation and its purpose?
By the President of the United States of America:
A Proclamation.
Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand
eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United
States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:
“That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred
and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the
people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then,
thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States,
including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom
of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any
efforts they may make for their actual freedom.
“That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation,
designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively,
shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people
thereof, shall on that day be, in good faith, represented in the Congress of the United States
by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such
100

State shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be
deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not then in
rebellion against the United States.”
Now, therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the
power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief, of the Army and Navy of the United States
in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States,
and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day
of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in
accordance with my purpose so to do publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred
days, from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of
States wherein the people thereof respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United
States, the following, to wit:
Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines,
Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche,
St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of New Orleans) Mississippi,
Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the
forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley,
Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the
cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth), and which excepted parts, are for the present, left
precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.
And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that
all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and
henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States,
including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the
freedom of said persons.
And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence,
unless in necessary self-defense; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed,
they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.
And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition, will be
received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations,
and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.
And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the
Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and
the gracious favor of Almighty God.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United
States to be affixed.

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Done at the City of Washington, this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one
thousand eight hundred and sixty three, and of the Independence of the United States of
America the eighty-seventh.
By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

102

Letter to Erastus Corning and Others
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
This public letter, dated June 12, 1863, responds to a group of New York Democrats who,
while professing loyalty to the Union, had criticized President Lincoln for the arrest of
Ohio Congressman Clement Vallandigham (1820–71), leader of the antiwar Democrats,
known as the Copperheads (named after the venomous snake). Vallandigham was arrested
in May 1863 under General Order Number 38, an Army order that forbade public
expression of sympathy for the Confederate States and their cause. The authority for this
order came from Lincoln’s suspension of the writ of habeas corpus in September 24, 1862.
This letter to Congressman Erastus Corning (1794–1872) and others was a popular
success. Lincoln sent it to key leaders around the country; he had it published in the New
York Tribune, which guaranteed that it would be recopied in newspapers everywhere; and
it appeared in pamphlet version as well, with a circulation in the hundreds of thousands.
How does Lincoln characterize his critics, and how does he justify his actions to them?
Did he believe he was acting constitutionally? Or did he believe that the emergency
justified strong measures, whether constitutional or not? Why does Lincoln not fear any
permanent danger to the system from an action like suspending habeas corpus? What do
we learn from this letter about Lincoln’s understanding of executive prerogative? Was
Lincoln justified in suspending civil liberties during the war? Would you have been
persuaded by this letter? Was it important that Lincoln publicly stated the reasons for his
actions?
Executive Mansion, Washington
June 12, 1863
Hon. Erastus Corning and Others.
Gentlemen:
Your letter of May 19, inclosing the resolutions of a public meeting held at Albany,
New York, on the 16th of the same month, was received several days ago.
The resolutions, as I understand them, are resolvable into two propositions—first, the
expression of a purpose to sustain the cause of the Union, to secure peace through victory,
and to support the administration in every constitutional and lawful measure to suppress
the rebellion; and, secondly, a declaration of censure upon the administration for supposed
unconstitutional action, such as the making of military arrests. And from the two
propositions a third is deduced, which is that the gentlemen composing the meeting are
resolved on doing their part to maintain our common government and country, despite the
folly or wickedness, as they may conceive, of any administration. This position is
eminently patriotic, and as such I thank the meeting, and congratulate the nation for it. My
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own purpose is the same; so that the meeting and myself have a common object, and can
have no difference, except in the choice of means or measures for effecting that object.
And here I ought to close this paper, and would close it, if there were no apprehension
that more injurious consequences than any merely personal to myself might follow the
censures systematically cast upon me for doing what, in my view of duty, I could not
forbear. The resolutions promise to support me in every constitutional and lawful measure
to suppress the rebellion; and I have not knowingly employed, nor shall knowingly employ,
any other. But the meeting, by their resolutions, assert and argue that certain military
arrests, and proceedings following them, for which I am ultimately responsible, are
unconstitutional. I think they are not. The resolutions quote from the Constitution the
definition of treason, and also the limiting safeguards and guarantees therein provided for
the citizen on trials for treason, and on his being held to answer for capital or otherwise
infamous crimes, and in criminal prosecutions his right to a speedy and public trial by an
impartial jury. They proceed to resolve “that these safeguards of the rights of the citizen
against the pretentions of arbitrary power were intended more especially for his protection
in times of civil commotion.” And, apparently to demonstrate the proposition, the
resolutions proceed: “They were secured substantially to the English people after years of
protracted civil war, and were adopted into our Constitution at the close of the revolution.”
Would not the demonstration have been better if it could have been truly said that these
safeguards had been adopted and applied during the civil wars and during our revolution,
instead of after the one and at the close of the other? I, too, am devotedly for them after
civil war, and before civil war, and at all times, “except when, in cases of rebellion or
invasion, the public safety may require” their suspension. The resolutions proceed to tell
us that these safeguards “have stood the test of seventy-six years of trial under our
republican system, under circumstances which show that while they constitute the
foundation of all free government, they are the elements of the enduring stability of the
republic.”
No one denies that they have so stood the test up to the beginning of the present
rebellion, if we except a certain matter at New Orleans hereafter to be mentioned; nor does
any one question that they will stand the same test much longer after the rebellion closes.
But these provisions of the Constitution have no application to the case we have in hand,
because the arrests complained of were not made for treason—that is, not for the treason
defined in the Constitution, and upon the conviction of which the punishment is death—
nor yet were they made to hold persons to answer for any capital or otherwise infamous
crimes; nor were the proceedings following, in any constitutional or legal sense, “criminal
prosecutions.” The arrests were made on totally different grounds, and the proceedings
following accorded with the grounds of the arrests. Let us consider the real case with which
we are dealing, and apply to it the parts of the Constitution plainly made for such cases.
Prior to my installation here it had been inculcated that any State had a lawful right to
secede from the national Union, and that it would be expedient to exercise the right
whenever the devotees of the doctrine should fail to elect a president to their own liking. I
was elected contrary to their liking; and, accordingly, so far as it was legally possible, they
had taken seven States out of the Union, had seized many of the United States forts, and
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had fired upon the United States Flag, all before I was inaugurated, and, of course, before
I had done any official act whatever. The rebellion thus began soon ran into the present
civil war; and, in certain respects, it began on very unequal terms between the parties. The
insurgents had been preparing for it more than thirty years, while the government had taken
no steps to resist them. The former had carefully considered all the means which could be
turned to their account. It undoubtedly was a well-pondered reliance with them that in their
own unrestricted effort to destroy Union, Constitution and law, all together, the government
would, in great degree, be restrained by the same Constitution and law from arresting their
progress. Their sympathizers pervaded all departments of the government and nearly all
communities of the people. From this material, under cover of “liberty of speech,” “liberty
of the press,” and “habeas corpus,” they hoped to keep on foot amongst us a most efficient
corps of spies, informers, suppliers, and aiders and abettors of their cause in a thousand
ways. They knew that in times such as they were inaugurating, by the Constitution itself
the “habeas corpus” might be suspended; but they also knew they had friends who would
make a question as to who was to suspend it; meanwhile their spies and others might remain
at large to help on their cause. Or if, as has happened, the Executive should suspend the
writ without ruinous waste of time, instances of arresting innocent persons might occur, as
are always likely to occur in such cases; and then a clamor could be raised in regard to this,
which might be at least of some service to the insurgent cause. It needed no very keen
perception to discover this part of the enemy’s programme, so soon as by open hostilities
their machinery was fairly put in motion. Yet, thoroughly imbued with a reverence for the
guaranteed rights of individuals, I was slow to adopt the strong measures which by degrees
I have been forced to regard as being within the exceptions of the Constitution, and as
indispensable to the public safety. Nothing is better known to history than that courts of
justice are utterly incompetent to such cases. Civil courts are organized chiefly for trials of
individuals, or, at most, a few individuals acting in concert—and this in quiet times, and
on charges of crimes well defined in the law. Even in times of peace bands of horse-thieves
and robbers frequently grow too numerous and powerful for the ordinary courts of justice.
But what comparison, in numbers, have such bands ever borne to the insurgent
sympathizers even in many of the loyal States? Again, a jury too frequently has at least one
member more ready to hang the panel than to hang the traitor. And yet again, he who
dissuades one man from volunteering, or induces one soldier to desert, weakens the Union
cause as much as he who kills a Union soldier in battle. Yet this dissuasion or inducement
may be so conducted as to be no defined crime of which any civil court would take
cognizance. Ours is a case of rebellion—so called by the resolutions before me—in fact, a
clear, flagrant, and gigantic case of rebellion; and the provision of the Constitution that
“the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended unless when, in cases of
rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it,” is the provision which specially
applies to our present case. This provision plainly attests the understanding of those who
made the Constitution that ordinary courts of justice are inadequate to “cases of
rebellion”—attests their purpose that, in such cases, men may be held in custody whom the
courts, acting on ordinary rules, would discharge. Habeas corpus does not discharge men
who are proved to be guilty of defined crime; and its suspension is allowed by the
Constitution on purpose that men may be arrested and held who cannot be proved to be
guilty of defined crime, “when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may
require it.”
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This is precisely our present case—a case of rebellion wherein the public Safety does
require the suspension. Indeed, arrests by process of courts and arrests in cases of rebellion
do not proceed altogether upon the same basis. The former is directed at the small
percentage of ordinary and continuous perpetration of crime, while the latter is directed at
sudden and extensive uprisings against the government, which, at most, will succeed or fail
in no great length of time. In the latter case arrests are made not so much for what has been
done, as for what probably would be done. The latter is more for the preventive and less
for the vindictive than the former. In such cases the purposes of men are much more easily
understood than in cases of ordinary crime. The man who stands by and says nothing when
the peril of his government is discussed, cannot be misunderstood. If not hindered, he is
sure to help the enemy; much more if he talks ambiguously — talks for his country with
“buts,” and “ifs” and “ands.” Of how little value the constitutional provision I have quoted
will be rendered if arrests shall never be made until defined crimes shall have been
committed, may be illustrated by a few notable examples: General John C. Breckenridge,
General Robert E. Lee, General Joseph E. Johnston, General John B. Magruder, General
William B. Preston, General Simon B. Buckner, and Commodore Franklin Buchanan, now
occupying the very highest places in the rebel war service, were all within the power of the
government since the rebellion began, and were nearly as well known to be traitors then as
now. Unquestionably if we had seized and held them, the insurgent cause would be much
weaker. But no one of them had then committed any crime defined in the law. Every one
of them, if arrested, would have been discharged on habeas corpus were the writ allowed
to operate. In view of these and similar cases, I think the time not unlikely to come when I
shall be blamed for having made too few arrests rather than too many. By the third
resolution the meeting indicate their opinion that military arrests may be constitutional in
localities where rebellion actually exists, but that such arrests are unconstitutional in
localities where rebellion or insurrection does not actually exist. They insist that such
arrests shall not be made “outside of the lines of necessary military occupation and the
scenes of insurrection.” Inasmuch, however, as the Constitution itself makes no such
distinction, I am unable to believe that there is any such constitutional distinction. I concede
that the class of arrests complained of can be constitutional only when, in cases of rebellion
or invasion, the public safety may require them; and I insist that in such cases they are
constitutional wherever the public safety does require them, as well in places to which they
may prevent the rebellion extending, as in those where it may be already prevailing; as well
where they may restrain mischievous interference with the raising and supplying of armies
to suppress the rebellion, as where the rebellion may actually be; as well where they may
restrain the enticing men out of the army, as where they would prevent mutiny in the army;
equally constitutional at all places where they will conduce to the public safety, as against
the dangers of rebellion or invasion. Take the particular case mentioned by the meeting.
They assert in substance, that Mr. Vallandigham was, by a military commander, seized and
tried “for no other reason than words addressed to a public meeting in criticism of the
course of the administration, and in condemnation of the military orders of the general.”
Now, if there be no mistake about this, if this assertion is the truth and the whole truth, if
there was no other reason for the arrest, then I concede that the arrest was wrong. But the
arrest, as I understand, was made for a very different reason. Mr. Vallandigham avows his
hostility to the war on the part of the Union; and his arrest was made because he was
laboring, with some effect, to prevent the raising of troops, to encourage desertions from
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the army, and to leave the rebellion without an adequate military force to suppress it. He
was not arrested because he was damaging the political prospects of the administration or
the personal interests of the commanding general, but because he was damaging the army,
upon the existence and vigor of which the life of the nation depends. He was warring upon
the military, and this gave the military constitutional jurisdiction to lay hands upon him. If
Mr. Vallandigham was not damaging the military power of the country, then his arrest was
made on mistake of fact, which I would be glad to correct on reasonably satisfactory
evidence. I understand the meeting whose resolutions I am considering to be in favor of
suppressing the rebellion by military force — by armies. Long experience has shown that
armies cannot be maintained unless desertion shall be punished by the severe penalty of
death. The case requires, and the law and the Constitution sanction, this punishment. Must
I shoot a simple-minded soldier boy who deserts, while I must not touch a hair of a wiley
agitator who induces him to desert? This is none the less injurious when effected by getting
a father, or brother, or friend into a public meeting, and there working upon his feelings till
he is persuaded to write the soldier boy that he is fighting in a bad cause, for a wicked
administration of a contemptible government, too weak to arrest and punish him if he shall
desert. I think that, in such a case, to silence the agitator and save the boy is not only
constitutional, but withal a great mercy. If I be wrong on this question of constitutional
power, my error lies in believing that certain proceedings are constitutional when, in cases
of rebellion or invasion, the public safety requires them, which would not be constitutional
when, in absence of rebellion or invasion, the public safety does not require them: in other
words, that the Constitution is not in its application in all respects the same in cases of
rebellion or invasion involving the public safety, as it is in times of profound peace and
public security. The Constitution itself makes the distinction, and I can no more be
persuaded that the government can constitutionally take no strong measures in time of
rebellion, because it can be shown that the same could not be lawfully taken in time of
peace, than I can be persuaded that a particular drug is not good medicine for a sick man
because it can be shown to not be good food for a well one. Nor am I able to appreciate the
danger apprehended by the meeting, that the American people will by means of military
arrests during the rebellion lose the right of public discussion, the liberty of speech and the
press, the law of evidence, trial by jury, and habeas corpus throughout the indefinite
peaceful future which I trust lies before them, any more than I am able to believe that a
man could contract so strong an appetite for emetics during temporary illness as to persist
in feeding upon them during the remainder of his healthful life. In giving the resolutions
that earnest consideration which you request of me, I cannot overlook the fact that the
meeting speak as “Democrats.” Nor can I, with full respect for their known intelligence,
and the fairly presumed deliberation with which they prepared their resolutions, be
permitted to suppose that this occurred by accident, or in any way other than that they
preferred to designate themselves “Democrats” rather than “American citizens.” In this
time of national peril I would have preferred to meet you upon a level one step higher than
any party platform, because I am sure that from such more elevated position we could do
better battle for the country we all love than we possibly can from those lower ones, where,
from the force of habit, the prejudices of the past, and selfish hopes of the future, we are
sure to expend much of our ingenuity and strength in finding fault with and aiming blows
at each other. But since you have denied me this, I will yet be thankful for the country’s
sake that not all Democrats have done so. He on whose discretionary judgment Mr.
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Vallandigham was arrested and tried is a Democrat, having no old party affinity with me,
and the judge who rejected the constitutional view expressed in these resolutions, by
refusing to discharge Mr. Vallandigham on habeas corpus, is a Democrat of better days
than these, having received his judicial mantle at the hands of President Jackson. And still
more, of all those Democrats who are nobly exposing their lives and shedding their blood
on the battle-field, I have learned that many approve the course taken with Mr.
Vallandigham, while I have not heard of a single one condemning it. I cannot assert that
there are none such. And the name of President Jackson recalls an instance of pertinent
history. After the battle of New Orleans, and while the fact that the treaty of peace had been
concluded was well known in the city, but before official knowledge of it had arrived,
General Jackson still maintained martial or military law. Now that it could be said the war
was over, the clamor against martial law, which had existed from the first, grew more
furious. Among other things, a Mr. Louaillier published a denunciatory newspaper article.
General Jackson arrested him. A lawyer by the name of Morel procured the United States
Judge Hall to order a writ of habeas corpus to release Mr. Louaillier. General Jackson
arrested both the lawyer and the judge. A Mr. Hollander ventured to say of some part of
the matter that “it was a dirty trick.” General Jackson arrested him. When the officer
undertook to serve the writ of habeas corpus, General Jackson took it from him, and sent
him away with a copy. Holding the judge in custody a few days, the general sent him
beyond the limits of his encampment, and set him at liberty with an order to remain till the
ratification of peace should be regularly announced, or until the British should have left
the southern coast. A day or two more elapsed, the ratification of the treaty of peace was
regularly announced, and the judge and others were fully liberated. A few days more, and
the judge called General Jackson into court and fined him $1000 for having arrested him
and the others named. The general paid the fine, and then the matter rested for nearly thirty
years, when Congress refunded principal and interest. The late Senator Douglas, then in
the House of Representatives, took a leading part in the debates in which the constitutional
question was much discussed. I am not prepared to say whom the journals would show to
have voted for the measure.
It may be remarked:—first, that we had the same Constitution then as now; secondly,
that we then had a case of invasion, and that now we have a case of rebellion; and, thirdly,
that the permanent right of the people to public discussion, the liberty of speech and the
press, the trial by jury, the law of evidence, and the habeas corpus, suffered no detriment
whatever by that conduct of General Jackson, or its subsequent approval by the American
Congress.
And yet, let me say that, in my own discretion, I do not know whether I would have
ordered the arrest of Mr. Vallandigham. While I shift the responsibility from myself, I hold
that, as a general rule, the commander in the field is the better judge of the necessity in any
particular case. Of course I must practice a general directory and revisory power in the
matter.
One of the resolutions expresses the opinion of the meeting that arbitrary arrests will
have the effect to divide and distract those who should be united in suppressing the
rebellion, and I am specifically called on to discharge Mr. Vallandigham. I regard this as,
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at least, a fair appeal to me on the expediency of exercising a constitutional power which I
think exists. In response to such appeal I have to say, it gave me pain when I learned that
Mr. Vallandigham had been arrested (that is, I was pained that there should have seemed
to be a necessity for arresting him), and that it will afford me great pleasure to discharge
him so soon as I can by any means believe the public safety will not suffer by it.
I further say that, as the war progresses, it appears to me, opinion and action, which
were in great confusion at first, take shape and fall into more regular channels, so that the
necessity for arbitrary dealing with them gradually decreases. I have every reason to desire
that it should cease altogether, and far from the least is my regard for the opinions and
wishes of those who, like the meeting at Albany, declare their purpose to sustain the
government in every constitutional and lawful measure to suppress the rebellion. Still, I
must continue to do so much as may seem to be required by the public safety.
A. Lincoln.

109

Thanksgiving Day Proclamation
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) issued this proclamation for a day of national thanksgiving
on October 3, 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, not long after the battle of Gettysburg
and several other Union successes seemed to have turned the tide toward a Union victory.
Like so many of his famous speeches, this modest presidential proclamation displays the
extraordinary understanding, statesmanship, and generosity of soul that distinguished the
16th President of the United States.
How does Lincoln’s beginning capture the audience’s sympathy? What, exactly, are
the blessings for which he believes that thanksgiving is in order, even “in the midst of a
civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity”? Why does he believe that, despite the
human “waste” of the war, the country may be permitted to “expect continuance of years
with large increase of freedom”? What is his understanding of “the Most High God,” His
relation to the United States, and “our sins”? What do you think Lincoln is hoping to teach
the nation here? Imagining yourself as a Confederate auditor of this proclamation; would
you be inclined to accept the invitation and recommendation Lincoln offers in the long fifth
paragraph to “my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States”? Is Lincoln’s case for
“a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father” still persuasive today?
The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields
and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone
to forget the source from which they come, others have been added which are of so
extraordinary a nature that they can not fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is
habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.
In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes
seemed to foreign states to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved
with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and
harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict, while that
theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.
Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the
national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the
borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals,
have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased
notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield,
and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is
permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things.
They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for
our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.
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It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and
gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people.
I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those
who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the
last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent
Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the
ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also,
with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His
tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the
lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the
interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as
soon as may be consistent with the divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace,
harmony, tranquility, and union.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United
States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this 3d day of October, A. D. 1863, and of the
Independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

111

Gettysburg Address
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
The creed of the American Republic, as enunciated in the Declaration of Independence,
begins with the claim, offered as a self-evident truth, that “all men are created equal.” Yet
our embrace of the principle was long embarrassed in practice by the existence of chattel
slavery, present at the Founding but greatly increased through the first half of the 19th
century. Critics of the Declaration openly called human equality “a self-evident lie,” and
the infamous Dred Scott decision (1857) gave voice to a racist and exclusionary
interpretation of the Declaration, insisting that its “all men” referred only to “all white
men” who were the equals of British subjects living in Britain. No one did more to oppose
this (mis)interpretation than our sixteenth president, Abraham Lincoln, who famously
claimed that he had “never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments
embodied in the Declaration of Independence.” Lincoln’s most famous defense of equality
appears in the Gettysburg Address, delivered on November 19, 1863, in the midst of a civil
war whose deepest cause was the institution of slavery. Here Lincoln revisits the
Declaration of Independence, summoning the nation to achieve a “new birth of freedom”
through renewed dedication to the founding proposition of human equality.
How does Lincoln understand the key terms of the creed, and in particular, the relation
between equality and freedom? What is the difference between “holding” equality as a
“self-evident truth” and regarding it as a “proposition” to which we are dedicated? What
is the difference between the “new birth of freedom,” coming from the bloody war, and the
original birth of the nation, “conceived in liberty”? How, according to Lincoln, can the
war lead to a more perfect Union? What do you think is the meaning of equality today, and
how is it related to freedom? How fares the idea and practice of “government of the people,
by the people, for the people” in the United States today? How can we tell whether the
Union today is being perfected or the reverse?
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation,
conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so
conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war.
We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here
gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should
do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not
hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have
consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor
long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the
living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have
thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining
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before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which
they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead
shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of
freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish
from the earth.

113

Speech to the 166th Ohio Regiment
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
On August 22, 1864, Lincoln delivered this address to the war-weary soldiers of the 166th
Ohio Regiment. With the presidential election fast approaching, Lincoln saw the need to
both express his gratitude to the soldiers for their personal sacrifice, and to remind them
of the purpose and importance of the war. At the time, there was concern in Lincoln’s camp
that the soldiers would vote against him in the election, as the Democratic candidate,
General George McClellan (1826–85), had pledged to end the war and send soldiers home
to their families for good. The day after seeing the regiment, Lincoln wrote his “blind
memorandum” stipulating that it is “exceedingly probable that this Administration will not
be re-elected.”
What does Lincoln say to the soldiers to impress upon them “the importance of success
in this contest?” To what sentiments does he appeal? What political principle(s) does he
enunciate in sentences 4 to 9? How would the statement of these principles be likely to
affect his audience? What does Lincoln’s rhetorical style suggest about how leaders should
communicate with their subordinates? Would you be persuaded by this speech? Why or
why not?
I suppose you are going home to see your families and friends. For the service you have
done in this great struggle in which we are engaged I present you sincere thanks for myself
and the country. I almost always feel inclined, when I happen to say anything to soldiers,
to impress upon them in a few brief remarks the importance of success in this contest. It is
not merely for to-day, but for all time to come that we should perpetuate for our children’s
children this great and free government, which we have enjoyed all our lives. I beg you to
remember this, not merely for my sake, but for yours. I happen temporarily to occupy this
big White House. I am a living witness that any one of your children may look to come
here as my father’s child has. It is in order that each of you may have through this free
government which we have enjoyed, an open field and fair chance for your industry,
enterprise, and intelligence; that you may all have equal privileges in the race of life, with
all its desirable human aspirations. It is for this the struggle should be maintained, that we
may not lose our birthright—not only for one, but for two or three years. The nation is
worth fighting for, to secure such an inestimable jewel.

114

Excerpt from “The President’s Policy”
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL
James Russell Lowell (1819–91) was a poet, editor, and diplomat, associated with the
Fireside Poets, a group of New England writers who were among the first American poets
to rival the popularity of British poets. An ardent abolitionist, he published anti-slavery
articles and verse with his wife, Maria White (1821–53). Although at times critical of
Lincoln, Lowell supported him in the 1860 presidential election, and in December 1863,
wrote this essay (here excerpted) in favor of Lincoln’s reelection.
What case does Lowell make for Lincoln’s reelection? What qualities make a statesman
as opposed to a mere politician? How have Lincoln’s critics misunderstood him, and why
have they done so? What is Lincoln’s policy on slavery? What was the “riddle” that he
understood, and his abolitionist critics did not?
There have been many painful crises since the impatient vanity of South Carolina hurried
ten prosperous Commonwealths into a crime whose assured retribution was to leave them
either at the mercy of the nation they had wronged, or of the anarchy they had summoned
but could not control, when no thoughtful American opened his morning paper without
dreading to find that he had no longer a country to love and honor. . . .
At the beginning of the war there was, indeed, occasion for the most anxious
apprehension. A President known to be infected with the political heresies, and suspected
of sympathy with the treason of the Southern conspirators, had just surrendered the reins,
we will not say of power, but of chaos, to a successor known only as the representative of
a party whose leaders, with long training in opposition, had none in the conduct of affairs;
an empty treasury was called on to supply resources beyond precedent in the history of
finance; the trees were yet growing and the iron unmined with which a navy was to be built
and armored; officers without discipline were to make a mob into an army; and, above all,
the public opinion of Europe, echoed and reinforced with every vague hint and every
specious argument of despondency by a powerful faction at home, was either
contemptuously skeptical or actively hostile. . . .
And even if we look only at more palpable difficulties, the problem to be solved by our
civil war was so vast, both in its immediate relations and its future consequences; the
conditions of its solution were so intricate and so greatly dependent on incalculable and
uncontrollable contingencies; so many of the data, whether for hope or fear, were, from
their novelty, incapable of arrangement under any of the categories of historical
precedent,—that there were moments of crisis when the firmest believer in the strength and
sufficiency of the democratic theory of government might well hold his breath in vague
apprehension of disaster. . . .
Mr. Lincoln’s task was one of peculiar and exceptional difficulty. Long habit had
accustomed the American people to the notion of a party in power, and of a President as
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its creature and organ, while the more vital fact, that the executive for the time being
represents the abstract idea of government as a permanent principle superior to all party
and all private interest, had gradually become unfamiliar. They had so long seen the public
policy more or less directed by views of party, and often even of personal advantage, as to
be ready to suspect the motives of a chief magistrate compelled, for the first time in our
history, to feel himself the head and hand of a great nation, and to act upon the fundamental
maxim laid down by all publicists, that the first duty of a government is to defend and
maintain its own existence. . . .
The change which three years have brought about is too remarkable to be passed over
without comment, too weighty in its lesson not to be laid to heart. Never did a President
enter upon office with less means at his command, outside his own strength of heart and
steadiness of understanding, for inspiring confidence in the people, and so winning it for
himself, than Mr. Lincoln. All that was known of him was that he was a good stumpspeaker, nominated for this availability,—that is, because he had no history,—and chosen
by a party with whose more extreme opinions he was not in sympathy. It might well be
feared that a man past fifty, against whom the ingenuity of hostile partisans could rake up
no accusation, must be lacking in manliness of character, in decision of principle, in
strength of will,—that a man who was at best only the representative of a party, and who
yet did not fairly represent even that,—would fail of political, much more of popular,
support. And certainly no one ever entered upon office with so few resources of power in
the past, and so many materials of weakness in the present, as Mr. Lincoln. Even in that
half of the Union which acknowledged him as President, there was a large, and at that time
dangerous minority, that hardly admitted his claim to the office, and even in the party that
elected him, there was also a large minority that suspected him of being secretly a
communicant with the Church of Laodicea. All that he did was sure to be virulently
attacked as ultra by one side; all that he left undone, to be stigmatized as proof of
lukewarmness and backsliding by the other. Meanwhile he was to carry on a truly colossal
war by means of both; he was to disengage the country from diplomatic entanglements of
unprecedented peril undisturbed by the help or the hindrance of either, and to win from the
crowning dangers of his administration, in the confidence of the people, the means of his
safety and their own. He has contrived to do it, and perhaps none of our Presidents since
Washington has stood so firm in the confidence of the people as he does after three years
of stormy administration.
Mr. Lincoln’s policy was a tentative one, and rightly so. He laid down no program
which must compel him to be either inconsistent or unwise, no cast-iron theorem to which
circumstances must be fitted as they rose, or else be useless to his ends. He seemed to have
chosen Mazarin’s motto, Le temps et moi [Time and me]. The moi, to be sure, was not very
prominent at first; but it has grown more and more so, till the world is beginning to be
persuaded that it stands for a character of marked individuality and capacity for affairs.
Time was his prime-minister, and, we began to think at one period, his general-in-chief
also. At first he was so slow that he tired out all those who see no evidence of progress but
in blowing up the engine; then he was so fast, that he took the breath away from those who
think there is no getting on safely while there is a spark of fire under the boilers. God is the
only being who has time enough; but a prudent man, who knows how to seize occasion,
116

can commonly make a shift to find as much as he needs. Mr. Lincoln, as it seems to us in
reviewing his career, though we have sometimes in our impatience thought otherwise, has
always waited, as a wise man should, till the right moment brought up all his reserves.
Semper nocuit differre paratis [Delay is always harmful to those who are prepared], is a
sound axiom, but the really efficacious man will also be sure to know when he is not ready,
and be firm against all persuasion and reproach till he is.
One would be apt to think, from some of the criticisms made on Mr. Lincoln’s course
by those who mainly agree with him in principle, that the chief object of a statesman should
be rather to proclaim his adhesion to certain doctrines, than to achieve their triumph by
quietly accomplishing his ends. In our opinion, there is no more unsafe politician than a
conscientiously rigid doctrinaire, nothing more sure to end in disaster than a theoretic
scheme of policy that admits of no pliability for contingencies. True, there is a popular
image of an impossible He, in whose plastic hands the submissive destinies of mankind
become as wax, and to whose commanding necessity the toughest facts yield with the
graceful pliancy of fiction; but in real life we commonly find that the men who control
circumstances, as it is called, are those who have learned to allow for the influence of their
eddies, and have the nerve to turn them to account at the happy instant. Mr. Lincoln’s
perilous task has been to cast a rather shackly raft through the rapids, making fast the
unrulier logs as he could snatch opportunity, and the country is to be congratulated that he
did not think it his duty to run straight at all hazards, but cautiously to assure himself with
his setting-pole where the main current was, and keep steadily to that. He is still in wild
water, but we have faith that his skill and sureness of eye will bring him out right at last. .
..
Undoubtedly slavery was the most delicate and embarrassing question with which Mr.
Lincoln was called on to deal, and it was one which no man in his position, whatever his
opinions, could evade; for, though he might withstand the clamor of partisans, he must
sooner or later yield to the persistent importunacy of circumstances, which thrust the
problem upon him at every turn and in every shape. He must solve the riddle of this new
Sphinx, or be devoured. . . . Mr. Lincoln dallied with his decision perhaps longer than
seemed needful to those on whom its awful responsibility was not to rest, but when he
made it, it was worthy of his cautious but sure-footed understanding. The moral of the
Sphinx-riddle, and it is a deep one, lies in the childish simplicity of the solution. Those
who fail in guessing it, fail because they are over-ingenious, and cast about for an answer
that shall suit their own notion of the gravity of the occasion and of their own dignity, rather
than the occasion itself.
In a matter which must be finally settled by public opinion, and in regard to which the
ferment of prejudice and passion on both sides has not yet subsided to that equilibrium of
compromise from which alone a sound public opinion can result, it is proper enough for
the private citizen to press his own convictions with all possible force of argument and
persuasion; but the popular magistrate, whose judgment must become action, and whose
action involves the whole country, is bound to wait till the sentiment of the people is so far
advanced toward his own point of view, that what he does shall find support in it, instead
of merely confusing it with new elements of division. It was not unnatural that men
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earnestly devoted to the saving of their country, and profoundly convinced that slavery was
its only real enemy, should demand a decided policy round which all patriots might rally,—
and this might have been the wisest course for an absolute ruler. But in the then unsettled
state of the public mind, with a large party decrying even resistance to the slaveholders’
rebellion as not only unwise, but even unlawful; with a majority, perhaps, even of the
would-be loyal so long accustomed to regard the Constitution as a deed of gift conveying
to the South their own judgment as to policy and instinct as to right, that they were in doubt
at first whether their loyalty were due to the country or to slavery; and with a respectable
body of honest and influential men who still believed in the possibility of conciliation,—
Mr. Lincoln judged wisely, that, in laying down a policy in deference to one party, he
should be giving to the other the very fulcrum for which their disloyalty had been waiting.
...
While every day was bringing the people nearer to the conclusion which all thinking
men saw to be inevitable from the beginning, it was wise in Mr. Lincoln to leave the
shaping of his policy to events. In this country, where the rough and ready understanding
of the people is sure at last to be the controlling power, a profound common-sense is the
best genius for statesmanship. Hitherto the wisdom of the President’s measures have been
justified by the fact that they have always resulted in more firmly uniting public opinion. .
..

118

From Lincoln’s Yarns and Stories
ALEXANDER MCCLURE, ED.
Lincoln is justly celebrated for the beauty and power of his eloquence, but he was also well
known for his humorous stories, tall tales, and colorful jokes. As a backwoods attorney, he
had often used jokes and stories to gain the good will of juries. Now as president, his storytelling and joke-making served to deflect unwanted questions, explain policies, and relieve
his own spirits and those of his listeners. As Walt Whitman wrote, “Story-telling was often
with President Lincoln a weapon which he employ’d with great skill. Very often he could
not give a point-blank reply or comment—and these indirections, (sometimes funny, but
not always so) were probably the best responses possible.”
Alexander McClure (1828–1909), a politician and close confidant of Lincoln’s,
collected many of these tales for Lincoln’s Yarns and Stories: A Complete Collection of
the Funny and Witty Anecdotes That Made Abraham Lincoln Famous as America’s
Greatest Story Teller (1900). In reading the three yarns excerpted below, ask yourself why
Lincoln chose the particular joke or story related. What purpose does the story serve? Does
the story have an object or moral?
“ABE’S” HAIR NEEDED COMBING.
“By the way,” remarked President Lincoln one day to Colonel Cannon, a close personal
friend, “I can tell you a good story about my hair. When I was nominated at Chicago, an
enterprising fellow thought that a great many people would like to see how ‘Abe’ Lincoln
looked, and, as I had not long before sat for a photograph, the fellow, having seen it, rushed
over and bought the negative.
“He at once got no end of wood-cuts, and so active was their circulation they were soon
selling in all parts of the country.
“Soon after they reached Springfield, I heard a boy crying them for sale on the streets.
‘Here’s your likeness of “Abe” Lincoln!’ he shouted. ‘Buy one; price only two shillings!
Will look a great deal better when he gets his hair combed!’”
RIGHT FOR, ONCE, ANYHOW.
Where men bred in courts, accustomed to the world, or versed in diplomacy, would use
some subterfuge, or would make a polite speech, or give a shrug of the shoulders, as the
means of getting out of an embarrassing position, Lincoln raised a laugh by some bold
west-country anecdote, and moved off in the cloud of merriment produced by the joke.
When Attorney-General Bates was remonstrating apparently against the appointment of
some indifferent lawyer to a place of judicial importance, the President interposed with:
“Come now, Bates, he’s not half as bad as you think. Besides that, I must tell you, he did

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me a good turn long ago. When I took to the law, I was going to court one morning, with
some ten or twelve miles of bad road before me, and I had no horse.
“The judge overtook me in his carriage.
“‘Hallo, Lincoln! are you not going to the court-house? Come in and I will give you a
seat!’
“Well, I got in, and the Judge went on reading his papers. Presently the carriage struck
a stump on one side of the road, then it hopped off to the other. I looked out, and I saw the
driver was jerking from side to side in his seat, so I says:
“‘Judge, I think your coachman has been taking a little too much this morning.’
“‘Well, I declare, Lincoln,’ said he, ‘I should not much wonder if you were right, for
he has nearly upset me half a dozen times since starting.’
“So, putting his head out of the window, he shouted, ‘Why, you infernal scoundrel, you
are drunk!’
“Upon which, pulling up his horses, and turning round with great gravity, the coachman
said: “‘Begorra! That’s the first rightful decision that you have given for the last
twelvemonth.’”
While the company were laughing, the President beat a quiet retreat from the
neighborhood.
LINCOLN’S STORY TO PEACE COMMISSIONERS.
Among the reminiscences of Lincoln left by Editor Henry J. Raymond, is the following:
Among the stories told by Lincoln, which is freshest in my mind, one which he related
to me shortly after its occurrence, belongs to the history of the famous interview on board
the River Queen, at Hampton Roads, between himself and Secretary Seward and the rebel
Peace Commissioners. It was reported at the time that the President told a “little story” on
that occasion, and the inquiry went around among the newspapers, “What was it?”
The New York Herald published what purported to be a version of it, but the “point”
was entirely lost, and it attracted no attention. Being in Washington a few days subsequent
to the interview with the Commissioners (my previous sojourn there having terminated
about the first of last August), I asked Mr. Lincoln one day if it was true that he told
Stephens, Hunter and Campbell a story.
“Why, yes,” he replied, manifesting some surprise, “but has it leaked out? I was in
hopes nothing would be said about it, lest some over-sensitive people should imagine there

was a degree of levity in the intercourse between us.” He then went on to relate the
circumstances which called it out.
“You see,” said he, “we had reached and were discussing the slavery question. Mr.
Hunter said, substantially, that the slaves, always accustomed to an overseer, and to work
upon compulsion, suddenly freed, as they would be if the South should consent to peace
on the basis of the ‘Emancipation Proclamation,’ would precipitate not only themselves,
but the entire Southern society, into irremediable ruin. No work would be done, nothing
would be cultivated, and both blacks and whites would starve!”
Said the President: “I waited for Seward to answer that argument, but as he was silent,
I at length said: ‘Mr. Hunter, you ought to know a great deal better about this argument
than I, for you have always lived under the slave system. I can only say, in reply to your
statement of the case, that it reminds me of a man out in Illinois, by the name of Case, who
undertook, a few years ago, to raise a very large herd of hogs. It was a great trouble to feed
them, and how to get around this was a puzzle to him. At length he hit on the plan of
planting an immense field of potatoes, and, when they were sufficiently grown, he turned
the whole herd into the field, and let them have full swing, thus saving not only the labor
of feeding the hogs, but also that of digging the potatoes. Charmed with his sagacity, he
stood one day leaning against the fence, counting his hogs, when a neighbor came along.
“‘Well, well,’ said he, ‘Mr. Case, this is all very fine. Your hogs are doing very well
just now, but you know out here in Illinois the frost comes early, and the ground freezes
for a foot deep. Then what you going to do?’
“This was a view of the matter which Mr. Case had not taken into account. Butchering
time for hogs was ’way on in December or January! He scratched his head, and at length
stammered: ‘Well, it may come pretty hard on their snouts, but I don’t see but that it will
be “root, hog, or die.”’”

121

Last Speeches

Second Inaugural Address
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Abraham Lincoln (1809–65), who presided over the successful prosecution of the Civil
War, also gave deep thought to the war’s cause, meaning, and purpose, and also to what
would be required to heal the nation after the war was over. In the Gettysburg Address
(November 19, 1863), Lincoln had summoned Americans to rededicate themselves to the
cause of freedom and equality. Here, in his Second Inaugural Address (March 4, 1865),
invoking theological speculation and quoting Scripture, Lincoln offers an interpretation of
the meaning of the war and summons all Americans to a new and more difficult public
purpose.
How does Lincoln invite us to understand the Civil War? Why does he regard both
North and South as guilty of the offense of American slavery? Why does Lincoln move
beyond the discussion of slavery, which he calls the cause of the war, to theological
reflections? What is meaning of, and what is the point of citing, the passage from the
Gospel of Matthew (“Woe unto the world because of offenses! . . .”)? How do Lincoln’s
theological reflections lead him to the thoughts and mood of the stirring final paragraph?
In the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln had claimed that the Civil War is a test of whether our
nation, or any nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to equality, can long endure. Here,
with the end of the war in sight, but with wounds still wide open, he suggests that the test
of our nation will henceforth be measured by its capacity for charity. What does Lincoln
mean by charity? Is its capacity for charity a reasonable basis for judging this nation, or
any nation?
After you have read the Second Inaugural, and pondered these questions, you may want
to read the remarkable analysis of the speech (“A Very Peculiar God”) by Caitrin Nicol
Keiper (b. 1985), editor of Philanthropy magazine, which appears below, as an Appendix.
Fellow Countrymen:
At this second appearing to take the oath of the presidential office, there is less occasion
for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement, somewhat in detail,
of a course to be pursued, seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years,
during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and
phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention, and engrosses the energies of
the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all
else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself; and it is, I trust, reasonably
satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard
to it is ventured.
On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously
directed to an impending civil-war. All dreaded it—all sought to avert it. While the
inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the
Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war—
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seeking to dissolve the Union, and divide effects, by negotiation. Both parties deprecated
war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would
accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.
One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over
the Union, but localized in the Southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and
powerful interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war. To
strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents
would rend the Union, even by war; while the government claimed no right to do more
than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war, the
magnitude, or the duration, which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause
of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each
looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the
same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may
seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their
bread from the sweat of other men’s faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged. The
prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully. The
Almighty has His own purposes. “Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must
needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!” If we
shall suppose that American Slavery is one of those offences which, in the providence of
God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now
wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South, this terrible war, as the woe
due to those by whom the offence came, shall we discern therein any departure from those
divine attributes which the believers in a Living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we
hope—fervently do we pray—that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away.
Yet, if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man’s two hundred
and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with
the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years
ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether.”
With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives
us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s
wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his
orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among
ourselves, and with all nations.

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Last Public Address
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
On April 11, 1865, just two days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s (1807–70) army
surrendered, Lincoln delivered his last public address from the White House balcony. In his
remarks, he noted the difficulties in moving forward with Reconstruction, but also expressed hope
that the majority of white southerners would support efforts to reunify the nation. Most notably,
for the first time in a public setting, Lincoln stated his support for African American suffrage. This
support was much too radical for some, including audience member and Confederate activist John
Wilkes Booth (1838–65). Just three days after hearing Lincoln’s speech, Booth assassinated
Lincoln at Ford’s Theater in Washington, DC.
What is the main challenge for Reconstruction, according to Lincoln? What is the relationship
of the seceded states to the Union? What policies does Lincoln favor to bring the states to their
“proper practical relation,” particularly as it relates to Louisiana? Why do you think Lincoln
chose, in his first speech after Appomattox, to mark the surrender—a great victory for the cause
he championed—in this way?
We meet this evening, not in sorrow, but in gladness of heart. The evacuation of Petersburg and
Richmond, and the surrender of the principal insurgent army, give hope of a righteous and speedy
peace whose joyous expression can not be restrained. In the midst of this, however, He from whom
all blessings flow, must not be forgotten. A call for a national thanksgiving is being prepared, and
will be duly promulgated. Nor must those whose harder part gives us the cause of rejoicing, be
overlooked. Their honors must not be parcelled out with others. I myself was near the front, and
had the high pleasure of transmitting much of the good news to you; but no part of the honor, for
plan or execution, is mine. To Gen. Grant, his skilful officers, and brave men, all belongs. The
gallant Navy stood ready, but was not in reach to take active part.
By these recent successes the re-inauguration of the national authority—reconstruction—
which has had a large share of thought from the first, is pressed much more closely upon our
attention. It is fraught with great difficulty. Unlike the case of a war between independent nations,
there is no authorized organ for us to treat with. No one man has authority to give up the rebellion
for any other man. We simply must begin with, and mould from, disorganized and discordant
elements. Nor is it a small additional embarrassment that we, the loyal people, differ among
ourselves as to the mode, manner, and means of reconstruction.
As a general rule, I abstain from reading the reports of attacks upon myself, wishing not to be
provoked by that to which I can not properly offer an answer. In spite of this precaution, however,
it comes to my knowledge that I am much censured for some supposed agency in setting up, and
seeking to sustain, the new State Government of Louisiana. In this I have done just so much as,
and no more than, the public knows. In the Annual Message of Dec. 1863 and accompanying
Proclamation, I presented a plan of re-construction (as the phrase goes) which, I promised, if
adopted by any State, should be acceptable to, and sustained by, the Executive government of the
nation. I distinctly stated that this was not the only plan which might possibly be acceptable; and
I also distinctly protested that the Executive claimed no right to say when, or whether members
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should be admitted to seats in Congress from such States. This plan was, in advance, submitted to
the then Cabinet, and distinctly approved by every member of it. One of them suggested that I
should then, and in that connection, apply the Emancipation Proclamation to the theretofore
excepted parts of Virginia and Louisiana; that I should drop the suggestion about apprenticeship
for freed-people, and that I should omit the protest against my own power, in regard to the
admission of members to Congress; but even he approved every part and parcel of the plan which
has since been employed or touched by the action of Louisiana. The new constitution of Louisiana,
declaring emancipation for the whole State, practically applies the Proclamation to the part
previously excepted. It does not adopt apprenticeship for freed-people; and it is silent, as it could
not well be otherwise, about the admission of members to Congress. So that, as it applies to
Louisiana, every member of the Cabinet fully approved the plan. The message went to Congress,
and I received many commendations of the plan, written and verbal; and not a single objection to
it, from any professed emancipationist, came to my knowledge, until after the news reached
Washington that the people of Louisiana had begun to move in accordance with it. From about
July 1862, I had corresponded with different persons, supposed to be interested, seeking a
reconstruction of a State government for Louisiana. When the message of 1863, with the plan
before mentioned, reached New-Orleans, Gen. Banks wrote me that he was confident the people,
with his military co-operation, would reconstruct, substantially on that plan. I wrote him, and some
of them to try it; they tried it, and the result is known. Such only has been my agency in getting up
the Louisiana government. As to sustaining it, my promise is out, as before stated. But, as bad
promises are better broken than kept, I shall treat this as a bad promise, and break it, whenever I
shall be convinced that keeping it is adverse to the public interest. But I have not yet been so
convinced.
I have been shown a letter on this subject, supposed to be an able one, in which the writer
expresses regret that my mind has not seemed to be definitely fixed on the question whether the
seceded States, so called, are in the Union or out of it. It would perhaps, add astonishment to his
regret, were he to learn that since I have found professed Union men endeavoring to make that
question, I have purposely forborne any public expression upon it. As appears to me that question
has not been, nor yet is, a practically material one, and that any discussion of it, while it thus
remains practically immaterial, could have no effect other than the mischievous one of dividing
our friends. As yet, whatever it may hereafter become, that question is bad, as the basis of a
controversy, and good for nothing at all—a merely pernicious abstraction.
We all agree that the seceded States, so called, are out of their proper practical relation with
the Union; and that the sole object of the government, civil and military, in regard to those States
is to again get them into that proper practical relation. I believe it is not only possible, but in fact,
easier to do this, without deciding, or even considering, whether these states have even been out
of the Union, than with it. Finding themselves safely at home, it would be utterly immaterial
whether they had ever been abroad. Let us all join in doing the acts necessary to restoring the
proper practical relations between these states and the Union; and each forever after, innocently
indulge his own opinion whether, in doing the acts, he brought the States from without, into the
Union, or only gave them proper assistance, they never having been out of it.
The amount of constituency, so to speak, on which the new Louisiana government rests, would
be more satisfactory to all, if it contained fifty, thirty, or even twenty thousand, instead of only
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about twelve thousand, as it does. It is also unsatisfactory to some that the elective franchise is not
given to the colored man. I would myself prefer that it were now conferred on the very intelligent,
and on those who serve our cause as soldiers. Still the question is not whether the Louisiana
government, as it stands, is quite all that is desirable. The question is “Will it be wiser to take it as
it is, and help to improve it; or to reject, and disperse it?” “Can Louisiana be brought into proper
practical relation with the Union sooner by sustaining, or by discarding her new State
Government?”
Some twelve thousand voters in the heretofore slave-state of Louisiana have sworn allegiance
to the Union, assumed to be the rightful political power of the State, held elections, organized a
State government, adopted a free-state constitution, giving the benefit of public schools equally to
black and white, and empowering the Legislature to confer the elective franchise upon the colored
man. Their Legislature has already voted to ratify the constitutional amendment recently passed
by Congress, abolishing slavery throughout the nation. These twelve thousand persons are thus
fully committed to the Union, and to perpetual freedom in the state—committed to the very things,
and nearly all the things the nation wants—and they ask the nations recognition, and it’s assistance
to make good their committal. Now, if we reject, and spurn them, we do our utmost to disorganize
and disperse them. We in effect say to the white men “You are worthless, or worse—we will
neither help you, nor be helped by you.” To the blacks we say “This cup of liberty which these,
your old masters, hold to your lips, we will dash from you, and leave you to the chances of
gathering the spilled and scattered contents in some vague and undefined when, where, and how.”
If this course, discouraging and paralyzing both white and black, has any tendency to bring
Louisiana into proper practical relations with the Union, I have, so far, been unable to perceive it.
If, on the contrary, we recognize, and sustain the new government of Louisiana the converse of all
this is made true. We encourage the hearts, and nerve the arms of the twelve thousand to adhere to
their work, and argue for it, and proselyte for it, and fight for it, and feed it, and grow it, and ripen
it to a complete success. The colored man too, in seeing all united for him, is inspired with
vigilance, and energy, and daring, to the same end. Grant that he desires the elective franchise, will
he not attain it sooner by saving the already advanced steps toward it, than by running backward
over them? Concede that the new government of Louisiana is only to what it should be as the egg
is to the fowl, we shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg than by smashing it? Again, if
we reject Louisiana, we also reject one vote in favor of the proposed amendment to the national
constitution. To meet this proposition, it has been argued that no more than three fourths of those
States which have not attempted secession are necessary to validly ratify the amendment. I do not
commit myself against this, further than to say that such a ratification would be questionable, and
sure to be persistently questioned; while a ratification by three fourths of all the States would be
unquestioned and unquestionable.
I repeat the question. “Can Louisiana be brought into proper practical relation with the Union
sooner by sustaining or by discarding her new State Government?
What has been said of Louisiana will apply generally to other States. And yet so great
peculiarities pertain to each state; and such important and sudden changes occur in the same state;
and, withal, so new and unprecedented is the whole case, that no exclusive, and inflexible plan can
safely be prescribed as to details and colatterals [sic]. Such exclusive, and inflexible plan, would
surely become a new entanglement. Important principles may, and must, be inflexible.
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In the present “situation” as the phrase goes, it may be my duty to make some new
announcement to the people of the South. I am considering, and shall not fail to act, when satisfied
that action will be proper.

128

Appendix
A Very Peculiar God:
Reading Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address
CAITRIN NICOL KEIPER
On March 4, 1865—just a month before Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox—Abraham
Lincoln delivered his Second Inaugural Address. Invoking theological speculation and quoting
Scripture, he offered an interpretation of the meaning of the war, which enabled him to summon
Americans to a new and more difficult public purpose. In this essay, Caitrin Nicol Keiper (b. 1985),
editor of the Philanthropy magazine (and a former student of the editors), reveals the depths of
Lincoln’s address.
In an April 1864 letter to Albert G. Hodges, editor of the Commonwealth of Frankfort, Kentucky,
Abraham Lincoln wrote, “I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events
have controlled me. Now, at the end of three years struggle the nation’s condition is not what either
party, or any man devised, or expected. God alone can claim it.” 11 President Lincoln’s reelection
that fall might be attributed to the same power—a deeply unpopular president overseeing an
exhausting war with no end in sight, challenged by two former generals and doubted by members
of his own administration, he was not expected by anyone, including himself, to win until a handful
of eleventh-hour military victories turned fate in his favor. 12
The first words of Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, “At this second appearing,” quietly
acknowledge the unlikely event of his reelection (following, too, on the historical accident of his
election in the first place). 13 The opening paragraph is constructed mostly in the passive tense—
“public declarations have been constantly called forth,” “little that is new could be presented,” “the
progress of our arms . . . is as well known to the public as to myself,” “no prediction in regard to
it is ventured”—mentioning Lincoln himself but little, and after this paragraph not at all. The
unslakably ambitious man from the backwoods of Illinois implausibly (still) at the apex of power
has acknowledged to himself and now admits to everyone that this power has been of precious
little practical significance. He is not directing history. History is being directed in some other
way.

11

Abraham Lincoln to Albert G. Hodges, April 4, 1864, The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (New Brunswick,
NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1953), Volume VII, 282, available online at
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln/lincoln7/1:617.1?rgn=div2;view=fulltext.
12
Major General John C. Frémont, who had commanded the Union’s Mountain Department until June 1862, was
selected as the presidential nominee of one faction of the Republican Party in 1864. Major General George B.
McClellan, whose command of the Army of the Potomac was terminated by Lincoln in November 1862, was nominated
as the Democratic Party’s candidate in 1864. Frémont withdrew in September 1864. Following Union General
Sherman’s victorious Atlanta campaign, Lincoln defeated McClellan in the November election.
13
Lincoln delivered his Second Inaugural Address on the East Front of the United States Capitol in Washington, DC
on March 4, 1865. The text is available at www.whatsoproudlywehail.org/curriculum/the-meaning-ofamerica/second-inaugural-address-1865. All subsequent quotations from the Second Inaugural are taken from this
text. All italics are in the original.
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The next paragraph suggests large and shifting public forces. From the unity of the “all” who
“dreaded [war]” and “sought to avert it,” two opposing sides crystallized, one supplying rogue
“agents” whose agenda forced the other into a response that “both parties deprecated.” But in the
last line of the paragraph, these antagonistic human forces are overtaken and subsumed by one
single, inhuman actor, a conflict that is ascribed agency of its own: “And the war came.”
The cause that called this power into being, Lincoln continues, was slavery. Throughout his
political career, including his first campaign for the presidency and his First Inaugural Address, 14
Lincoln assiduously denied that he would challenge slavery where it already existed, insisting that
his administration sought above all to preserve the Union and did not pose a threat to the South.
These declared intentions had no bearing on events. Even at the beginning of the war, when the
North purported to be fighting not for the sake of abolition but only to reclaim the Union, everyone
somehow knew, Lincoln says now, that slavery was at the heart of it. The “bloody and heavendaring arrangement,” as William Lloyd Garrison called it, of including the peculiar institution in
the Constitution of the first nation founded on equality, an unhappy compromise to purchase the
ratification of slaveholding states, finally exploded with a burning force. 15
Even the institution of slavery, however, is insufficient explanation for what has happened:
The war, whose magnitude and duration were wholly unanticipated by everyone involved in it,
and which was set in motion by a catalyst too deeply embedded in the nation’s history to be touched
by human power, had outlasted slavery. At the war’s outset, neither the government nor the
insurgents, Lincoln says, “anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even
before, the conflict itself should cease.” But with the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln had
formally ordered the freedom of the slaves in the Confederate states—a decision which, even
though it would have no material effect until the Union won, amounted to a recognition of the
subject that until then he had tried to write out of the conflict. 16 Yet even so, the war went on
according to its own design. No one meant to go to war to free the slaves, but the slaves were freed.
No one meant for the war to go on so long. No one meant for 600,000 soldiers to die. If no one
meant for it to happen, and if the initial catalyst has been burned away, who or what is actually
responsible for all those casualties?
As if peeling an onion, the next causal layer that Lincoln strips back is the idea of a provincial
God, even one interested in the clear cause of justice. “It may seem strange,” he says, “that any
men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other
men’s faces”—but is it not even stranger that a just God would not have come to the assistance of
those who oppose them? “Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes
His aid against the other. . . . The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been
answered fully.”
Buried in this paragraph is the first suggestion of what Lincoln’s objective is for this address
(which he had begun by announcing what it was not): “[L]et us judge not that we be not judged.”
14

This phrase may sound flip and noncommittal to our ears in this present age of tolerance, but in
context it is an astonishing request. As Lincoln wrote in the letter to Hodges, “If slavery is not
wrong, nothing is wrong.” 17 Now he begins a sentence by indicting slavery but concludes it by
saying that we must not judge. By March 1865, the North is on the cusp of victory. With the end
finally in sight, the president could be expected to deliver a sonorous, triumphant ode to the Union
Army’s accomplishments and the righteousness of its cause, something to suggest that the price
the North had paid for victory was being justly validated. 18 But why, Lincoln asked himself, if the
North was being granted victory at the hand of a just God, had the war gone on so long and at such
high cost to all? Looking at the question from the other side of the conflict, Confederate General
Edward Porter Alexander put it thus: “It is customary to say that ‘Providence did not intend that
we should win,’ but I do not subscribe in the least to that doctrine. Providence did not care a row
of pins about it. If it did it was a very unintelligent Providence not to bring the business to a close—
the close it wanted—in less than four years of most terrible & bloody war.” 19
The answer that Lincoln finally offers, a comprehensive but harrowing theodicy of American
history stretching back before the nation’s founding, undermines the comforting assurances and
vindication that the North would be expecting on the eve of victory:
The Almighty has His own purposes. “Woe unto the world because of offences! for
it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence
cometh!” If we shall suppose that American Slavery is one of those offences which,
in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through
His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and
South, this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offence came, shall
we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers
in a Living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope—fervently do we
pray—that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills
that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man’s two hundred and fifty
years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the
lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand
years ago, so still it must be said “The judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous
altogether.” 20
The Union forces have been fighting to reestablish all the states as a single nation. As one
nation, they have a common past, a common character, and a common destiny. There can be no
such thing as sins committed solely by “the South,” accountable only to “the South,” for the South
is only part of one great but guilty nation. No one whose life was lost in the ghastly national
atonement of the Civil War was personally involved in the Atlantic slave trade (in which, before
it ended in 1808, Northerners were heavily complicit), in the inclusion of slavery in the
Constitution, or in the many other historical foundations for the South’s slave-based economy, but
it is these historical foundations, Lincoln says, as much or more than any current and particular sin
17

THE CAREER OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
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of slave-holding, for which everyone has now to pay. Just as liberty and self-government are the
legacy of the “fathers” who “brought forth . . . a new nation” (in the words of the Gettysburg
Address 21), their guilt is everyone’s inheritance as well—the sins of the fathers visited on the
children to the third and fourth generation. 22 If there is anything more horrifying than the Civil
War then playing out before them, it must be the two and a half centuries’ worth of slaves who
went to their graves unavenged—could there be any justice in a nation that was not called to
account for them in full measure?
But this theory of corporate guilt for the evil at the heart of the American experiment, humbling
as it ought to be to a Northerner, cannot quite encompass the fatalism in this passage, in which the
forces at work are still more abstract and incomprehensible than the traditional understanding of
freely chosen human action: it must needs be that offenses come into the world, but woe is due to
the unfortunates through whom they come. Is it actually the purpose of the Almighty, as Lincoln’s
quoted verse from Matthew seems to say, that woes are preordained to come into the world where
select men—or, in this case, a nation—are destined to pay for them? This is not a theodicy that
justifies woe as the byproduct of a greater good, such as the free determination of the human
conscience. This account of woe lays it directly at the feet of the Almighty, and concludes,
claiming there is no other conclusion left to draw, that it, like all His other judgments, is “true and
righteous altogether.” The Lincoln who three decades earlier looked to “cold, calculating,
unimpassioned reason” as the bedrock of the future of America has long since disappeared. 23 The
Lincoln of 1865 is prostrated by a great and tragic mystery whose scope he cannot explain, but
whose source he yet refuses to attribute to malevolence. The literary critic Alfred Kazin put it
wonderfully in his essay “The Almighty Has His Own Purposes”:
“Let us suppose,” [Lincoln] says in effect, that slavery is an offense that God
inexplicably allowed into human history. Let us even suppose that he allowed just
so much time for it. To suppose anything like this is actually to suppose a very
peculiar God. But since it all happened as described, and believers hold God
accountable for all things, one can only yield to the enigma of having such a God
at all. It is clear that the terrible war has overwhelmed the Lincoln who identified
himself as the man of reason. It has brought him to his knees, so to speak, in
heartbreaking awareness of the restrictions imposed by a mystery so encompassing
it can only be called “God.” Lincoln could find no other word for it. 24
Lincoln’s text goes further on this point than Kazin suggests—the Almighty of the Second
Inaugural seems not only to have allowed slavery into human history for a predetermined length
of time, but in fact played an active role in bringing and removing it. “Almighty” means “all
powerful,” after all—where is the power for such activity to come from, if not from Him?
A sometime aficionado of Thomas Paine and Voltaire, never a conventionally religious man
21

or member of any church congregation, Lincoln the depressive agnostic had always had a streak
of fatalism. But here, facing the worst evil and deepest tragedy of American history, he somehow
turns from fatalism to Providence. All these offenses, he claims, came about through the
providence of God—and who are we to say there is “therein any departure from those divine
attributes which the believers in a Living God always ascribe to Him?” “To deny it,” Lincoln wrote
to Republican politician Thurlow Weed a few days after delivering the Second Inaugural, “is to
deny that there is a God governing the world.” 25 But what are we to do when faced with such a
woeful God and asked to believe that He is not malevolent?
Lincoln’s answer is charity. It is not a reasonable answer, but it is a practical one. Reason has
no more to say on this subject. And, indeed, in terms of the actual events, even the military players
in this conflict will soon find their parts on the front lines of this drama coming to an end. There
is no longer a question of whether the South will be won back by brute subjugation, but Lincoln,
ever still the savior of the union, has looked through the mournful eyes of history and seen that
this is not enough—“a just, and a lasting peace” will not be brought about except by humility and
charity. Lincoln foresees the disastrous result of Reconstruction should it be carried out with a
heavy, judgmental hand, instead of one made gentle by sorrow and mutual repentance. His final
instructions, read now with our knowledge of his assassination, take on an undercurrent of eerie
foreboding for the miserable Reconstruction that was actually to take place—but, in a deeper sense,
they offer America a charge which it is never too late to heed:
With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God
gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the
nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow,
and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace,
among ourselves, and with all nations.
The qualitative difference between fate and Providence is charity. The idea of Providence
posits that charity directs our destiny even if it is in a way that we cannot comprehend. When we
come to the edges of our understanding of it, we can only take it up and keep going—or not. Even
if there is ultimately no such thing as Providence—it would be a fair assumption, in fact, to think
that this was a strong possibility in Lincoln’s private mind—we can still act with charity; and for
a nation that has just killed 600,000 of her own, there is no other way forward. Lincoln proposes a
practical and transformative response to horror, a kind of active love that reaches past the limits of
reason. We do not know the ways of the Almighty. We do not know the future, and we may not
understand the past. But we know our obligations to each other, drawn from the character of the
Christian Providence, whatever that ultimately means. This is the final objective of the president
who was almost mysteriously appointed to lead America through her Civil War, a national
apocalypse with the opportunity to be reborn on the other side.
Lincoln was shot just five weeks later—on Good Friday, of all days—and instantly became a
sainted martyr, the holy savior of a nation venerated as such even to this day. The “truth which
[he] thought needed to be told” thus became his final testament—but “whatever of humiliation
there is in it,” he concluded his letter to Weed, “falls most directly on myself.” If there is a just
25

Abraham Lincoln to Thurlow Weed, March 15, 1865, The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Volume VIII,
356, available online at http://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln/lincoln8/1:764.1?rgn=div2;view=fulltext.
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God governing the world, perhaps Lincoln was sacrificed not because he was innocent, but, as he
suggests, because he was guilty. A very peculiar God it is that would call us in such a way to the
work of charity.

134

Assassination

O Captain! My Captain!
WALT WHITMAN
In the days after Lincoln’s assassination, the nation, already war-torn and weary, grieved for its
fallen hero. The poet Walt Whitman (1819–92) had lived in Washington, DC during the Civil War,
and was a great admirer of Lincoln. He had been present at Lincoln’s second inauguration just
weeks before the assassination, after which he noted that the president “look’d very much worn
and tired,” but still showed “all the old goodness, tenderness, sadness, and canny shrewdness,
underneath the furrows.” Devastated by Lincoln’s death, Whitman wrote one of his most famous
poems—and the only one with rhyming meter. “O Captain! My Captain!” was first published in
New York’s Saturday Press in November of 1865.
Why does Whitman address Lincoln as “my Captain”? What is the “ship,” and what “prize”
has it won? How does Whitman render the loss of Lincoln as a loss personal to the speaker of the
poem? How does he render the loss of Lincoln as a national loss? Can one, at the same time, feel
joy for great victory and sadness at great loss? How does the poet navigate this emotional terrain?
Does the rhyming meter add to (or detract from) the poem’s meaning and impact?
O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills,
For you bouquets and ribboned wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding,
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head!
It is some dream that on the deck,
You’ve fallen cold and dead.
My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchored safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;
Exult O shores, and ring O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
136

When Lilacs Last in the Door-Yard Bloom’d
WALT WHITMAN
Although “O Captain! My Captain!” is the more famous of Walt Whitman’s eulogies of Lincoln,
the poet (1819–92) himself preferred this elegy to the fallen president. Composed in the summer
of 1865, the poem was inspired by the lilacs Whitman saw on his mother’s doorstep in Brooklyn
after hearing the news of Lincoln’s assassination. In Specimen Days, he later wrote, “By one of
those caprices that enter and give tinge to events without being at all a part of them, I find myself
always reminded of great tragedy of that day by the sight and odor of these blossoms. It never
fails.”
Note the poem’s three major motifs—the lilacs, a western star (Venus), and the hermit thrush.
Why do you think the poet chose them? What is the connection between Lincoln, the poet, and
these three symbols? What is the “swamp” that the poet seeks (section 15), and what is the “harsh
surrounding cloud” that holds him back (section 2)? What is the meaning of the bird’s song (see,
especially, section 4, where the poet calls it “Death’s outlet song of life”)? How does it inspire
the poet’s vision (section 18)? What consolation does it offer the poet and the reader? Why do you
think the poet chose a lilac to put on Lincoln’s coffin (section 6)?
1
When lilacs last in the door-yard bloom’d,
And the great star early droop’d in the western sky in the night,
I mourn’d—and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.
O ever-returning spring! trinity sure to me you bring;
Lilac blooming perennial, and drooping star in the west,
And thought of him I love.
2
O powerful, western, fallen star!
O shades of night! O moody, tearful night!
O great star disappear’d! O the black murk that hides the star!
O cruel hands that hold me powerless! O helpless soul of me!
O harsh surrounding cloud, that will not free my soul!
3
In the door-yard fronting an old farm-house, near the white-wash’d palings,
Stands the lilac bush, tall-growing, with heart-shaped leaves of rich green,
With many a pointed blossom, rising, delicate, with the perfume strong I love,
With every leaf a miracle . . . and from this bush in the door-yard,
With delicate-color’d blossoms, and heart-shaped leaves of rich green,
A sprig, with its flower, I break.
4
In the swamp, in secluded recesses,
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A shy and hidden bird is warbling a song.
Solitary, the thrush,
The hermit, withdrawn to himself, avoiding the settlements,
Sings by himself a song.
Song of the bleeding throat!
Death’s outlet song of life—(for well, dear brother, I know
If thou wast not gifted to sing, thou would’st surely die.)
5
Over the breast of the spring, the land, amid cities,
Amid lanes, and through old woods, (where lately the violets peep’d from the ground, spotting
the gray debris;)
Amid the grass in the fields each side of the lanes—passing the endless grass;
Passing the yellow-spear’d wheat, every grain from its shroud in the dark-brown fields uprising;
Passing the apple-tree blows of white and pink in the orchards;
Carrying a corpse to where it shall rest in the grave,
Night and day journeys a coffin.
6
Coffin that passes through lanes and streets,
Through day and night, with the great cloud darkening the land,
With the pomp of the inloop’d flags, with the cities draped in black,
With the show of the States themselves, as of crape-veil’d women, standing,
With processions long and winding, and the flambeaus of the night,
With the countless torches lit—with the silent sea of faces, and the unbared heads,
With the waiting depot, the arriving coffin, and the sombre faces,
With dirges through the night, with the thousand voices rising strong and solemn;
With all the mournful voices of the dirges, pour’d around the coffin,
The dim-lit churches and the shuddering organs—Where amid these you journey,
With the tolling, tolling bells’ perpetual clang;
Here! coffin that slowly passes,
I give you my sprig of lilac.
7
(Nor for you, for one, alone;
Blossoms and branches green to coffins all I bring:
For fresh as the morning—thus would I carol a song for you, O sane and sacred death.
All over bouquets of roses,
O death! I cover you over with roses and early lilies;
But mostly and now the lilac that blooms the first,
Copious, I break, I break the sprigs from the bushes;
With loaded arms I come, pouring for you,
For you, and the coffins all of you, O death.)
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Walt Whitman, “When Lilacs Last in the Door-Yard Bloom’d”
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8
O western orb, sailing the heaven!
Now I know what you must have meant, as a month since we walk’d,
As we walk’d up and down in the dark blue so mystic,
As we walk’d in silence the transparent shadowy night,
As I saw you had something to tell, as you bent to me night after night,
As you droop’d from the sky low down, as if to my side, (while the other stars all look’d on;)
As we wander’d together the solemn night, (for something, I know not what, kept me from
sleep;)
As the night advanced, and I saw on the rim of the west, ere you went, how full you were of woe;
As I stood on the rising ground in the breeze, in the cold transparent night,
As I watch’d where you pass’d and was lost in the netherward black of the night,
As my soul, in its trouble, dissatisfied, sank, as where you, sad orb,
Concluded, dropt in the night, and was gone.
9
Sing on, there in the swamp!
O singer bashful and tender! I hear your notes—I hear your call;
I hear—I come presently—I understand you;
But a moment I linger—for the lustrous star has detain’d me;
The star, my departing comrade, holds and detains me.
10
O how shall I warble myself for the dead one there I loved?
And how shall I deck my song for the large sweet soul that has gone?
And what shall my perfume be, for the grave of him I love?
Sea-winds, blown from east and west,
Blown from the eastern sea, and blown from the western sea, till there on the prairies meeting:
These, and with these, and the breath of my chant,
I perfume the grave of him I love.
11
O what shall I hang on the chamber walls?
And what shall the pictures be that I hang on the walls,
To adorn the burial-house of him I love?
Pictures of growing spring, and farms, and homes,
With the Fourth-month eve at sundown, and the gray smoke lucid and bright,
With floods of the yellow gold of the gorgeous, indolent, sinking sun, burning, expanding the air;
With the fresh sweet herbage under foot, and the pale green leaves of the trees prolific;
In the distance the flowing glaze, the breast of the river, with a wind-dapple here and there;
With ranging hills on the banks, with many a line against the sky, and shadows;
And the city at hand, with dwellings so dense, and stacks of chimneys,
And all the scenes of life, and the workshops, and the workmen homeward returning.

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12
Lo! body and soul! this land!
Mighty Manhattan, with spires, and the sparkling and hurrying tides, and the ships;
The varied and ample land—the South and the North in the light—Ohio’s shores, and flashing
Missouri,
And ever the far-spreading prairies, cover’d with grass and corn.
Lo! the most excellent sun, so calm and haughty;
The violet and purple morn, with just-felt breezes;
The gentle, soft-born, measureless light;
The miracle, spreading, bathing all—the fulfill’d noon;
The coming eve, delicious—the welcome night, and the stars,
Over my cities shining all, enveloping man and land.
13
Sing on! sing on, you gray-brown bird!
Sing from the swamps, the recesses—pour your chant from the bushes;
Limitless out of the dusk, out of the cedars and pines.
Sing on, dearest brother—warble your reedy song;
Loud human song, with voice of uttermost woe.
O liquid, and free, and tender!
O wild and loose to my soul! O wondrous singer!
You only I hear . . . yet the star holds me, (but will soon depart;)
Yet the lilac, with mastering odor, holds me.
14
Now while I sat in the day, and look’d forth,
In the close of the day, with its light, and the fields of spring, and the farmer preparing his crops,
In the large unconscious scenery of my land, with its lakes and forests,
In the heavenly aerial beauty, (after the perturb’d winds, and the storms;)
Under the arching heavens of the afternoon swift passing, and the voices of children and women,
The many-moving sea-tides,—and I saw the ships how they sail’d,
And the summer approaching with richness, and the fields all busy with labor,
And the infinite separate houses, how they all went on, each with its meals and minutia of daily
usages;
And the streets, how their throbbings throbb’d, and the cities pent—lo! then and there,
Falling upon them all, and among them all, enveloping me with the rest,
Appear’d the cloud, appear’d the long black trail;
And I knew Death, its thought, and the sacred knowledge of death.
15
Then with the knowledge of death as walking one side of me,
And the thought of death close-walking the other side of me,
And I in the middle, as with companions, and as holding the hands of companions,
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Walt Whitman, “When Lilacs Last in the Door-Yard Bloom’d”
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I fled forth to the hiding receiving night, that talks not,
Down to the shores of the water, the path by the swamp in the dimness,
To the solemn shadowy cedars, and ghostly pines so still.
And the singer so shy to the rest receiv’d me;
The gray-brown bird I know, receiv’d us comrades three;
And he sang what seem’d the carol of death, and a verse for him I love.
From deep secluded recesses,
From the fragrant cedars, and the ghostly pines so still,
Came the carol of the bird.
And the charm of the carol rapt me,
As I held, as if by their hands, my comrades in the night;
And the voice of my spirit tallied the song of the bird.
DEATH CAROL.
16
Come, lovely and soothing Death,
Undulate round the world, serenely arriving, arriving,
In the day, in the night, to all, to each,
Sooner or later, delicate Death.
Prais’d be the fathomless universe,
For life and joy, and for objects and knowledge curious;
And for love, sweet love—But praise! praise! praise!
For the sure-enwinding arms of cool-enfolding Death.
Dark Mother, always gliding near, with soft feet,
Have none chanted for thee a chant of fullest welcome?
Then I chant it for thee—I glorify thee above all;
I bring thee a song that when thou must indeed come, come unfalteringly.
Approach, strong Deliveress!
When it is so—when thou hast taken them, I joyously sing the dead,
Lost in the loving, floating ocean of thee,
Laved in the flood of thy bliss, O Death.
From me to thee glad serenades,
Dances for thee I propose, saluting thee—adornments and feastings for thee;
And the sights of the open landscape, and the high-spread sky, are fitting,
And life and the fields, and the huge and thoughtful night.
The night, in silence, under many a star;
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The ocean shore, and the husky whispering wave, whose voice I know;
And the soul turning to thee, O vast and well-veil’d Death,
And the body gratefully nestling close to thee.
Over the tree-tops I float thee a song!
Over the rising and sinking waves—over the myriad fields, and the prairies wide;
Over the dense-pack’d cities all, and the teeming wharves and ways,
I float this carol with joy, with joy to thee, O Death!
17
To the tally of my soul,
Loud and strong kept up the gray-brown bird,
With pure, deliberate notes, spreading, filling the night.
Loud in the pines and cedars dim,
Clear in the freshness moist, and the swamp-perfume;
And I with my comrades there in the night.
While my sight that was bound in my eyes unclosed,
As to long panoramas of visions.
18
I saw askant the armies;
And I saw, as in noiseless dreams, hundreds of battle-flags;
Borne through the smoke of the battles, and pierc’d with missiles, I saw them,
And carried hither and yon through the smoke, and torn and bloody;
And at last but a few shreds left on the staffs, (and all in silence,)
And the staffs all splinter’d and broken.
I saw battle-corpses, myriads of them,
And the white skeletons of young men—I saw them;
I saw the debris and debris of all the dead soldiers of the war;
But I saw they were not as was thought;
They themselves were fully at rest—they suffer’d not;
The living remain’d and suffer’d—the mother suffer’d,
And the wife and the child, and the musing comrade suffer’d,
And the armies that remain’d suffer’d.
19
Passing the visions, passing the night;
Passing, unloosing the hold of my comrades’ hands;
Passing the song of the hermit bird, and the tallying song of my soul,
(Victorious song, death’s outlet song, yet varying, ever-altering song,
As low and wailing, yet clear the notes, rising and falling, flooding the night,
Sadly sinking and fainting, as warning and warning, and yet again bursting with joy,
Covering the earth, and filling the spread of the heaven,
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Walt Whitman, “When Lilacs Last in the Door-Yard Bloom’d”
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As that powerful psalm in the night I heard from recesses,)
Passing, I leave thee, lilac with heart-shaped leaves;
I leave thee there in the door-yard, blooming, returning with spring,
I cease from my song for thee;
From my gaze on thee in the west, fronting the west, communing with thee,
O comrade lustrous, with silver face in the night.
20
Yet each I keep, and all, retrievements out of the night;
The song, the wondrous chant of the gray-brown bird,
And the tallying chant, the echo arous’d in my soul,
With the lustrous and drooping star, with the countenance full of woe,
With the lilac tall, and its blossoms of mastering odor;
With the holders holding my hand, nearing the call of the bird,
Comrades mine, and I in the midst, and their memory ever I keep—for the dead I loved so well;
For the sweetest, wisest soul of all my days and lands . . . and this for his dear sake;
Lilac and star and bird, twined with the chant of my soul,
There in the fragrant pines, and the cedars dusk and dim.

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Crown His Blood-Stained Pillow
JULIA WARD HOWE
Noted abolitionist and social activist Julia Ward Howe (1819–1910) met Abraham Lincoln in
Washington, DC in November 1861. The meeting inspired her to write one of the most popular
Union songs of the Civil War, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” After Lincoln’s assassination,
Howe turned to the sorrowful task of mourning the dead president with this somber poem, first
published in 1865.
Looking at the first three stanzas, what was Lincoln’s legacy, and what is his reward? Moving
to stanzas 4 through 6, how does the poet instruct us to honor him? Who is the “First Hero” of
the final verse, and how does his heroic action compare to that of Lincoln?
Crown his blood-stained pillow
With a victor’s palm;
Life’s receding billow
Leaves eternal calm.
At the feet Almighty
Lay this gift sincere;
Of a purpose weighty,
And a record clear.
With deliverance freighted
Was this passive hand,
And this heart, high-fated,
Would with love command.
Let him rest serenely
In a Nation’s care,
Where her waters queenly
Make the West most fair.
In the greenest meadow
That the prairies show,
Let his marble’s shadow
Give all men to know:
“Our First Hero, living,
Made his country free;
Heed the Second’s giving,
Death for Liberty.”

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Martyr
HERMAN MELVILLE
Novelist and poet Herman Melville (1819–91) published this poem a year after Lincoln’s
assassination. Melville included the poem in a collection on the Civil War, Battle-Pieces and
Aspects of the War, and introduced it as “indicative of the Passion of the People on the 15th of
April, 1865.”
How does this poem differ from the other poetic tributes to Lincoln? Who is the “they” that
“killed him in his pity,” and what “Passion of the People” do they unleash? Throughout the poem,
Lincoln is identified with Christ, but does his martyrdom bring salvation? Who is the “Avenger”?
How does Melville predict the Avenger will respond to Lincoln’s assassination?
Good Friday was the day
Of the prodigy and crime,
When they killed him in his pity,
When they killed him in his prime
Of clemency and calm—
When with yearning he was filled
To redeem the evil-willed,
And, though conqueror, be kind;
But they killed him in his kindness,
In their madness, in their blindness,
And they killed him from behind.

He lieth in his blood—
The father in his face;
They have killed him, the Forgiver—
The Avenger takes his place,
The Avenger wisely stern,
Who in righteousness shall do
What the heavens call him to,
And the parricides remand;
For they killed him in his kindness
In their madness and their blindness,
And his blood is on their hand.

There is sobbing of the strong,
And a pall upon the land;
But the People in their weeping
Bare the iron hand:
Beware the People weeping
When they bare the iron hand.

There is sobbing of the strong,
And a pall upon the land;
But the People in their weeping
Bare the iron hand:
Beware the People weeping
When they bare the iron hand.

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3
Lincoln Assessed
and Remembered

Great Emancipator

Oration in Memory of Abraham Lincoln
FREDERICK DOUGLASS
Frederick Douglass (c.1818–95), a prominent African-American abolitionist, social reformer, and
statesman, delivered his “Oration in Memory of Abraham Lincoln” at the unveiling of The
Freedmen’s Monument in Lincoln Park, Washington, DC on April 14, 1876. Douglass himself did
not care for the statue, sculpted by Thomas Ball and showing a kneeling slave at Lincoln’s feet.
During the unveiling, he was overheard complaining that it “showed the Negro on his knees when
a more manly attitude would have been indicative of freedom.”
In his speech, Douglass describes Lincoln as “preeminently the white man’s President.” What
does Douglass mean by this, and is it intended solely as a criticism of Lincoln? What is Douglass’
final verdict on Lincoln’s priority of Union over emancipation? What is the “good work for our
race” that is being performed at the unveiling, and to whom does it pay “highest honors”?
Friends and Fellow-citizens:
I warmly congratulate you upon the highly interesting object which has caused you to assemble
in such numbers and spirit as you have today. This occasion is in some respects remarkable. Wise
and thoughtful men of our race, who shall come after us, and study the lesson of our history in the
United States; who shall survey the long and dreary spaces over which we have traveled; who shall
count the links in the great chain of events by which we have reached our present position, will
make a note of this occasion; they will think of it and speak of it with a sense of manly pride and
complacency.
I congratulate you, also, upon the very favorable circumstances in which we meet today. They
are high, inspiring, and uncommon. They lend grace, glory, and significance to the object for which
we have met. Nowhere else in this great country, with its uncounted towns and cities, unlimited
wealth, and immeasurable territory extending from sea to sea, could conditions be found more
favorable to the success of this occasion than here.
We stand today at the national center to perform something like a national act—an act which
is to go into history; and we are here where every pulsation of the national heart can be heard, felt,
and reciprocated. A thousand wires, fed with thought and winged with lightning, put us in
instantaneous communication with the loyal and true men all over the country.
Few facts could better illustrate the vast and wonderful change which has taken place in our
condition as a people than the fact of our assembling here for the purpose we have today. Harmless,
beautiful, proper, and praiseworthy as this demonstration is, I cannot forget that no such
demonstration would have been tolerated here twenty years ago. The spirit of slavery and
barbarism, which still lingers to blight and destroy in some dark and distant parts of our country,
would have made our assembling here the signal and excuse for opening upon us all the floodgates of wrath and violence. That we are here in peace today is a compliment and a credit to
American civilization, and a prophecy of still greater national enlightenment and progress in the
future. I refer to the past not in malice, for this is no day for malice; but simply to place more
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distinctly in front the gratifying and glorious change which has come both to our white fellowcitizens and ourselves, and to congratulate all upon the contrast between now and then; the new
dispensation of freedom with its thousand blessings to both races, and the old dispensation of
slavery with its ten thousand evils to both races—white and black. In view, then, of the past, the
present, and the future, with the long and dark history of our bondage behind us, and with liberty,
progress, and enlightenment before us, I again congratulate you upon this auspicious day and hour.
Friends and fellow-citizens, the story of our presence here is soon and easily told. We are here
in the District of Columbia, here in the city of Washington, the most luminous point of American
territory; a city recently transformed and made beautiful in its body and in its spirit; we are here in
the place where the ablest and best men of the country are sent to devise the policy, enact the laws,
and shape the destiny of the Republic; we are here, with the stately pillars and majestic dome of
the Capitol of the nation looking down upon us; we are here, with the broad earth freshly adorned
with the foliage and flowers of spring for our church, and all races, colors, and conditions of men
for our congregation—in a word, we are here to express, as best we may, by appropriate forms and
ceremonies, our grateful sense of the vast, high, and preeminent services rendered to ourselves, to
our race, to our country, and to the whole world by Abraham Lincoln.
The sentiment that brings us here to-day is one of the noblest that can stir and thrill the human
heart. It has crowned and made glorious the high places of all civilized nations with the grandest
and most enduring works of art, designed to illustrate the characters and perpetuate the memories
of great public men. It is the sentiment which from year to year adorns with fragrant and beautiful
flowers the graves of our loyal, brave, and patriotic soldiers who fell in defense of the Union and
liberty. It is the sentiment of gratitude and appreciation, which often, in the presence of many who
hear me, has filled yonder heights of Arlington with the eloquence of eulogy and the sublime
enthusiasm of poetry and song; a sentiment which can never die while the Republic lives.
For the first time in the history of our people, and in the history of the whole American people,
we join in this high worship, and march conspicuously in the line of this time-honored custom.
First things are always interesting, and this is one of our first things. It is the first time that, in this
form and manner, we have sought to do honor to an American great man, however deserving and
illustrious. I commend the fact to notice; let it be told in every part of the Republic; let men of all
parties and opinions hear it; let those who despise us, not less than those who respect us, know that
now and here, in the spirit of liberty, loyalty, and gratitude, let it be known everywhere, and by
everybody who takes an interest in human progress and in the amelioration of the condition of
mankind, that, in the presence and with the approval of the members of the American House of
Representatives, reflecting the general sentiment of the country; that in the presence of that august
body, the American Senate, representing the highest intelligence and the calmest judgment of the
country; in the presence of the Supreme Court and Chief-Justice of the United States, to whose
decisions we all patriotically bow; in the presence and under the steady eye of the honored and
trusted President of the United States, with the members of his wise and patriotic Cabinet, we, the
colored people, newly emancipated and rejoicing in our blood-bought freedom, near the close of
the first century in the life of this Republic, have now and here unveiled, set apart, and dedicated
a monument of enduring granite and bronze, in every line, feature, and figure of which the men of
this generation may read, and those of aftercoming generations may read, something of the exalted
character and great works of Abraham Lincoln, the first martyr President of the United States.
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Fellow-citizens, in what we have said and done today, and in what we may say and do hereafter,
we disclaim everything like arrogance and assumption. We claim for ourselves no superior
devotion to the character, history, and memory of the illustrious name whose monument we have
here dedicated today. We fully comprehend the relation of Abraham Lincoln both to ourselves and
to the white people of the United States. Truth is proper and beautiful at all times and in all places,
and it is never more proper and beautiful in any case than when speaking of a great public man
whose example is likely to be commended for honor and imitation long after his departure to the
solemn shades, the silent continents of eternity. It must be admitted, truth compels me to admit,
even here in the presence of the monument we have erected to his memory, Abraham Lincoln was
not, in the fullest sense of the word, either our man or our model. In his interests, in his associations,
in his habits of thought, and in his prejudices, he was a white man.
He was preeminently the white man’s President, entirely devoted to the welfare of white men.
He was ready and willing at any time during the first years of his administration to deny, postpone,
and sacrifice the rights of humanity in the colored people to promote the welfare of the white
people of this country. In all his education and feeling he was an American of the Americans. He
came into the Presidential chair upon one principle alone, namely, opposition to the extension of
slavery. His arguments in furtherance of this policy had their motive and mainspring in his patriotic
devotion to the interests of his own race. To protect, defend, and perpetuate slavery in the states
where it existed Abraham Lincoln was not less ready than any other President to draw the sword
of the nation. He was ready to execute all the supposed guarantees of the United States Constitution
in favor of the slave system anywhere inside the slave states. He was willing to pursue, recapture,
and send back the fugitive slave to his master, and to suppress a slave rising for liberty, though his
guilty master were already in arms against the Government. The race to which we belong were not
the special objects of his consideration. Knowing this, I concede to you, my white fellow-citizens,
a pre-eminence in this worship at once full and supreme. First, midst, and last, you and yours were
the objects of his deepest affection and his most earnest solicitude. You are the children of
Abraham Lincoln. We are at best only his step-children; children by adoption, children by forces
of circumstances and necessity. To you it especially belongs to sound his praises, to preserve and
perpetuate his memory, to multiply his statues, to hang his pictures high upon your walls, and
commend his example, for to you he was a great and glorious friend and benefactor. Instead of
supplanting you at his altar, we would exhort you to build high his monuments; let them be of the
most costly material, of the most cunning workmanship; let their forms be symmetrical, beautiful,
and perfect, let their bases be upon solid rocks, and their summits lean against the unchanging
blue, overhanging sky, and let them endure forever! But while in the abundance of your wealth,
and in the fullness of your just and patriotic devotion, you do all this, we entreat you to despise not
the humble offering we this day unveil to view; for while Abraham Lincoln saved for you a
country, he delivered us from a bondage, according to Jefferson, one hour of which was worse
than ages of the oppression your fathers rose in rebellion to oppose.
Fellow-citizens, ours is no new-born zeal and devotion—merely a thing of this moment. The
name of Abraham Lincoln was near and dear to our hearts in the darkest and most perilous hours
of the Republic. We were no more ashamed of him when shrouded in clouds of darkness, of doubt,
and defeat than when we saw him crowned with victory, honor, and glory. Our faith in him was
often taxed and strained to the uttermost, but it never failed. When he tarried long in the mountain;
when he strangely told us that we were the cause of the war; when he still more strangely told us
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that we were to leave the land in which we were born; when he refused to employ our arms in
defense of the Union; when, after accepting our services as colored soldiers, he refused to retaliate
our murder and torture as colored prisoners; when he told us he would save the Union if he could
with slavery; when he revoked the Proclamation of Emancipation of General Fremont; when he
refused to remove the popular commander of the Army of the Potomac, in the days of its inaction
and defeat, who was more zealous in his efforts to protect slavery than to suppress rebellion; when
we saw all this, and more, we were at times grieved, stunned, and greatly bewildered; but our
hearts believed while they ached and bled. Nor was this, even at that time, a blind and unreasoning
superstition. Despite the mist and haze that surrounded him; despite the tumult, the hurry, and
confusion of the hour, we were able to take a comprehensive view of Abraham Lincoln, and to
make reasonable allowance for the circumstances of his position. We saw him, measured him, and
estimated him; not by stray utterances to injudicious and tedious delegations, who often tried his
patience; not by isolated facts torn from their connection; not by any partial and imperfect
glimpses, caught at inopportune moments; but by a broad survey, in the light of the stern logic of
great events, and in view of that divinity which shapes our ends, rough hew them how we will, we
came to the conclusion that the hour and the man of our redemption had somehow met in the
person of Abraham Lincoln. It mattered little to us what language he might employ on special
occasions; it mattered little to us, when we fully knew him, whether he was swift or slow in his
movements; it was enough for us that Abraham Lincoln was at the head of a great movement, and
was in living and earnest sympathy with that movement, which, in the nature of things, must go
on until slavery should be utterly and forever abolished in the United States.
When, therefore, it shall be asked what we have to do with the memory of Abraham Lincoln,
or what Abraham Lincoln had to do with us, the answer is ready, full, and complete. Though he
loved Caesar less than Rome, though the Union was more to him than our freedom or our future,
under his wise and beneficent rule we saw ourselves gradually lifted from the depths of slavery to
the heights of liberty and manhood; under his wise and beneficent rule, and by measures approved
and vigorously pressed by him, we saw that the handwriting of ages, in the form of prejudice and
proscription, was rapidly fading away from the face of our whole country; under his rule, and in
due time, about as soon after all as the country could tolerate the strange spectacle, we saw our
brave sons and brothers laying off the rags of bondage, and being clothed all over in the blue
uniforms of the soldiers of the United States; under his rule we saw two hundred thousand of our
dark and dusky people responding to the call of Abraham Lincoln, and with muskets on their
shoulders, and eagles on their buttons, timing their high footsteps to liberty and union under the
national flag; under his rule we saw the independence of the black republic of Haiti, the special
object of slave-holding aversion and horror, fully recognized, and her minister, a colored
gentleman, duly received here in the city of Washington; under his rule we saw the internal slavetrade, which so long disgraced the nation, abolished, and slavery abolished in the District of
Columbia; under his rule we saw for the first time the law enforced against the foreign slave trade,
and the first slave-trader hanged like any other pirate or murderer; under his rule, assisted by the
greatest captain of our age, and his inspiration, we saw the Confederate States, based upon the idea
that our race must be slaves, and slaves forever, battered to pieces and scattered to the four winds;
under his rule, and in the fullness of time, we saw Abraham Lincoln, after giving the slave-holders
three months’ grace in which to save their hateful slave system, penning the immortal paper, which,
though special in its language, was general in its principles and effect, making slavery forever
impossible in the United States. Though we waited long, we saw all this and more.
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Can any colored man, or any white man friendly to the freedom of all men, ever forget the
night which followed the first day of January, 1863, when the world was to see if Abraham Lincoln
would prove to be as good as his word? I shall never forget that memorable night, when in a distant
city I waited and watched at a public meeting, with three thousand others not less anxious than
myself, for the word of deliverance which we have heard read today. Nor shall I ever forget the
outburst of joy and thanksgiving that rent the air when the lightning brought to us the emancipation
proclamation. In that happy hour we forgot all delay, and forgot all tardiness, forgot that the
President had bribed the rebels to lay down their arms by a promise to withhold the bolt which
would smite the slave-system with destruction; and we were thenceforward willing to allow the
President all the latitude of time, phraseology, and every honorable device that statesmanship
might require for the achievement of a great and beneficent measure of liberty and progress.
Fellow-citizens, there is little necessity on this occasion to speak at length and critically of this
great and good man, and of his high mission in the world. That ground has been fully occupied
and completely covered both here and elsewhere. The whole field of fact and fancy has been
gleaned and garnered. Any man can say things that are true of Abraham Lincoln, but no man can
say anything that is new of Abraham Lincoln. His personal traits and public acts are better known
to the American people than are those of any other man of his age. He was a mystery to no man
who saw him and heard him. Though high in position, the humblest could approach him and feel
at home in his presence. Though deep, he was transparent; though strong, he was gentle; though
decided and pronounced in his convictions, he was tolerant towards those who differed from him,
and patient under reproaches. Even those who only knew him through his public utterance obtained
a tolerably clear idea of his character and personality. The image of the man went out with his
words, and those who read them knew him.
I have said that President Lincoln was a white man, and shared the prejudices common to his
countrymen towards the colored race. Looking back to his times and to the condition of his country,
we are compelled to admit that this unfriendly feeling on his part may be safely set down as one
element of his wonderful success in organizing the loyal American people for the tremendous
conflict before them, and bringing them safely through that conflict. His great mission was to
accomplish two things: first, to save his country from dismemberment and ruin; and, second, to
free his country from the great crime of slavery. To do one or the other, or both, he must have the
earnest sympathy and the powerful cooperation of his loyal fellow-countrymen. Without this
primary and essential condition to success his efforts must have been vain and utterly fruitless.
Had he put the abolition of slavery before the salvation of the Union, he would have inevitably
driven from him a powerful class of the American people and rendered resistance to rebellion
impossible. Viewed from the genuine abolition ground, Mr. Lincoln seemed tardy, cold, dull, and
indifferent; but measuring him by the sentiment of his country, a sentiment he was bound as a
statesman to consult, he was swift, zealous, radical, and determined.
Though Mr. Lincoln shared the prejudices of his white fellow-countrymen against the Negro,
it is hardly necessary to say that in his heart of hearts he loathed and hated slavery. The man who
could say, “Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war shall soon
pass away, yet if God wills it continue till all the wealth piled by two hundred years of bondage
shall have been wasted, and each drop of blood drawn by the lash shall have been paid for by one
drawn by the sword, the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether,” gives all needed
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proof of his feeling on the subject of slavery. He was willing, while the South was loyal, that it
should have its pound of flesh, because he thought that it was so nominated in the bond; but farther
than this no earthly power could make him go.
Fellow-citizens, whatever else in this world may be partial, unjust, and uncertain, time, time!
is impartial, just, and certain in its action. In the realm of mind, as well as in the realm of matter,
it is a great worker, and often works wonders. The honest and comprehensive statesman, clearly
discerning the needs of his country, and earnestly endeavoring to do his whole duty, though
covered and blistered with reproaches, may safely leave his course to the silent judgment of time.
Few great public men have ever been the victims of fiercer denunciation than Abraham Lincoln
was during his administration. He was often wounded in the house of his friends. Reproaches came
thick and fast upon him from within and from without, and from opposite quarters. He was assailed
by Abolitionists; he was assailed by slave-holders; he was assailed by the men who were for peace
at any price; he was assailed by those who were for a more vigorous prosecution of the war; he
was assailed for not making the war an abolition war; and he was bitterly assailed for making the
war an abolition war.
But now behold the change: the judgment of the present hour is, that taking him for all in all,
measuring the tremendous magnitude of the work before him, considering the necessary means to
ends, and surveying the end from the beginning, infinite wisdom has seldom sent any man into the
world better fitted for his mission than Abraham Lincoln. His birth, his training, and his natural
endowments, both mental and physical, were strongly in his favor. Born and reared among the
lowly, a stranger to wealth and luxury, compelled to grapple single-handed with the flintiest
hardships of life, from tender youth to sturdy manhood, he grew strong in the manly and heroic
qualities demanded by the great mission to which he was called by the votes of his countrymen.
The hard condition of his early life, which would have depressed and broken down weaker men,
only gave greater life, vigor, and buoyancy to the heroic spirit of Abraham Lincoln. He was ready
for any kind and any quality of work. What other young men dreaded in the shape of toil, he took
hold of with the utmost cheerfulness.
“A spade, a rake, a hoe,
A pick-axe, or a bill;
A hook to reap, a scythe to mow,
A flail, or what you will.”
All day long he could split heavy rails in the woods, and half the night long he could study his
English Grammar by the uncertain flare and glare of the light made by a pine-knot. He was at home
in the land with his axe, with his maul, with gluts, and his wedges; and he was equally at home on
water, with his oars, with his poles, with his planks, and with his boat-hooks. And whether in his
flat-boat on the Mississippi River, or at the fireside of his frontier cabin, he was a man of work. A
son of toil himself, he was linked in brotherly sympathy with the sons of toil in every loyal part of
the Republic. This very fact gave him tremendous power with the American people, and materially
contributed not only to selecting him to the Presidency, but in sustaining his administration of the
Government.

Upon his inauguration as President of the United States, an office, even when assumed under
the most favorable condition, fitted to tax and strain the largest abilities, Abraham Lincoln was
met by a tremendous crisis. He was called upon not merely to administer the Government, but to
decide, in the face of terrible odds, the fate of the Republic.
A formidable rebellion rose in his path before him; the Union was already practically
dissolved; his country was torn and rent asunder at the center. Hostile armies were already
organized against the Republic, armed with the munitions of war which the Republic had provided
for its own defense. The tremendous question for him to decide was whether his country should
survive the crisis and flourish, or be dismembered and perish. His predecessor in office had already
decided the question in favor of national dismemberment, by denying to it the right of self-defense
and self-preservation—a right which belongs to the meanest insect.
Happily for the country, happily for you and for me, the judgment of James Buchanan, the
patrician, was not the judgment of Abraham Lincoln, the plebeian. He brought his strong common
sense, sharpened in the school of adversity, to bear upon the question. He did not hesitate, he did
not doubt, he did not falter; but at once resolved that at whatever peril, at whatever cost, the union
of the States should be preserved. A patriot himself, his faith was strong and unwavering in the
patriotism of his countrymen. Timid men said before Mr. Lincoln’s inauguration, that we have
seen the last President of the United States. A voice in influential quarters said, “Let the Union
slide.” Some said that a Union maintained by the sword was worthless. Others said a rebellion of
8,000,000 cannot be suppressed; but in the midst of all this tumult and timidity, and against all
this, Abraham Lincoln was clear in his duty, and had an oath in heaven. He calmly and bravely
heard the voice of doubt and fear all around him; but he had an oath in heaven, and there was not
power enough on earth to make this honest boatman, backwoodsman, and broad-handed splitter
of rails evade or violate that sacred oath. He had not been schooled in the ethics of slavery; his
plain life had favored his love of truth. He had not been taught that treason and perjury were the
proof of honor and honesty. His moral training was against his saying one thing when he meant
another. The trust that Abraham Lincoln had in himself and in the people was surprising and grand,
but it was also enlightened and well founded. He knew the American people better than they knew
themselves, and his truth was based upon this knowledge.
Fellow-citizens, the fourteenth day of April, 1865, of which this is the eleventh anniversary, is
now and will ever remain a memorable day in the annals of this Republic. It was on the evening
of this day, while a fierce and sanguinary rebellion was in the last stages of its desolating power;
while its armies were broken and scattered before the invincible armies of Grant and Sherman;
while a great nation, torn and rent by war, was already beginning to raise to the skies loud anthems
of joy at the dawn of peace, it was startled, amazed, and overwhelmed by the crowning crime of
slavery—the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. It was a new crime, a pure act of malice. No
purpose of the rebellion was to be served by it. It was the simple gratification of a hell-black spirit
of revenge. But it has done good after all. It has filled the country with a deeper abhorrence of
slavery and a deeper love for the great liberator.
Had Abraham Lincoln died from any of the numerous ills to which flesh is heir; had he reached
that good old age of which his vigorous constitution and his temperate habits gave promise; had
he been permitted to see the end of his great work; had the solemn curtain of death come down but
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gradually—we should still have been smitten with a heavy grief, and treasured his name lovingly.
But dying as he did die, by the red hand of violence, killed, assassinated, taken off without warning,
not because of personal hate—for no man who knew Abraham Lincoln could hate him—but
because of his fidelity to union and liberty, he is doubly dear to us, and his memory will be precious
forever.
Fellow-citizens, I end, as I began, with congratulations. We have done a good work for our
race today. In doing honor to the memory of our friend and liberator, we have been doing highest
honors to ourselves and those who come after us; we have been fastening ourselves to a name and
fame imperishable and immortal; we have also been defending ourselves from a blighting scandal.
When now it shall be said that the colored man is soulless, that he has no appreciation of benefits
or benefactors; when the foul reproach of ingratitude is hurled at us, and it is attempted to scourge
us beyond the range of human brotherhood, we may calmly point to the monument we have this
day erected to the memory of Abraham Lincoln.

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The Emancipation Group
JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER
John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–92) was a prominent poet and advocate for the abolitionist cause.
His poems first appeared in the Newburyport Free Press, edited by the prominent abolitionist
William Lloyd Garrison (1805–79). Whittier wrote this poem for the December 9, 1879 unveiling
of a duplicate of the Emancipation Group Memorial (also commonly known as the Emancipation
Memorial or the Freedman’s Memorial/Monument) in Park Square, Boston. The Memorial,
originally designed and sculpted by Thomas Ball, depicts a freed slave, his shackles newly broken,
kneeling under Abraham Lincoln’s protective hand.
In the first stanza, how can a hand “unchain[] a race?” What images does the poet use to
describe Lincoln? What, according to Whittier, moved Lincoln to emancipate the slaves (stanzas
3 and 4)? Who or what inspired him to say “Let man be free!” What is Lincoln’s sacrifice, and
why is it necessary, according to the poet (stanzas 5 and 6)? What is the statue’s message, and
how is Lincoln’s sacrifice related (stanza 7)? Do you agree with the poet’s assertion “That truth
is stronger than a lie, / And righteousness than wrong”?
Amidst thy sacred effigies
Of old renown give place,
O city, Freedom-loved! to his
Whose hand unchained a race.

And Nature, through his voice, denied
The ownership of man.
We rest in peace where these sad eyes
Saw peril, strife, and pain;
His was the nation’s sacrifice,
And ours the priceless gain.

Take the worn frame, that rested not
Save in a martyr’s grave;
The care-lined face, that none forgot,
Bent to the kneeling slave.

O symbol of God’s will on earth
As it is done above!
Bear witness to the cost and worth
Of justice and of love.

Let man be free! The mighty word
He spake was not his own;
An impulse from the Highest stirred
These chiselled lips alone.

Stand in thy place and testify
To coming ages long,
That truth is stronger than a lie,
And righteousness than wrong.

The cloudy sign, the fiery guide,
Along his pathway ran,

156

Lincoln
PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR
One of the first African American writers to come to prominence, poet Paul Laurence Dunbar
(1872–1906) was the son of two escaped slaves from Kentucky. His father escaped from bondage
and served in the 55th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment and the 5th Massachusetts Colored
Calvary Regiment during the Civil War. In 1913, Dunbar first published this tribute to Abraham
Lincoln.
What is the “mighty wound” suffered by the nation (lines 1 through 4)? What event compels
Lincoln to come forward (lines 5 to 9)? Why does Dunbar compare Lincoln to a poet, a “Mighty
Homer of the lyre of war?” For what qualities and deeds does Dunbar celebrate Lincoln?
Hurt was the nation with a mighty wound,
And all her ways were filled with clam’rous sound.
Wailed loud the South with unremitting grief,
And wept the North that could not find relief.
Then madness joined its harshest tone to strife:
A minor note swelled in the song of life.
’Till, stirring with the love that filled his breast,
But still, unflinching at the right’s behest,
Grave Lincoln came, strong handed, from afar,
The mighty Homer of the lyre of war.
’Twas he who bade the raging tempest cease,
Wrenched from his harp the harmony of peace,
Muted the strings, that made the discord,—Wrong,
And gave his spirit up in thund’rous song.
Oh mighty Master of the mighty lyre,
Earth heard and trembled at thy strains of fire:
Earth learned of thee what Heav’n already knew,
And wrote thee down among her treasured few.

157

Lincoln Monument: Washington
LANGSTON HUGHES
Langston Hughes (1902–67), widely known as a leader of the 1920s Harlem Renaissance, brought
the African American struggle for civil rights into the public sphere with his novels, plays, and
poems. This poem, published in 1926, pays tribute to Lincoln at a time when Washington, DC was
still a segregated city.
Why does the poet call Lincoln “Old Abe,” and why is he described as “quiet”? What is the
“voice” the poet hears “Against the / Timeless walls / Of time,” and what do you think this voice
says? What is the role of time in this poem? Why does Hughes (over-)emphasize the years during
which the Memorial has been standing? How is the voice heard against the wall of the Memorial
“timeless”?
Let’s go see Old Abe
Sitting in the marble and the moonlight,
Sitting lonely in the marble and the moonlight,
Quiet for ten thousand centuries, old Abe.
Quiet for a million, million years.
Quiet—
And yet a voice forever
Against the
Timeless walls
Of time—
Old Abe.

158

Emancipation Proclamation Centennial Address
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) was a pastor, activist, and leader of the Civil Rights
Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. On September 12, 1962, King gave the following remarks—an
early forerunner of his famous “I Have a Dream” speech—as part of the New York Civil War
Centennial Commission’s Emancipation Proclamation Observance in New York City.
What is the meaning of the Declaration of Independence, according to King? What is the
relationship of the Emancipation Proclamation to the Declaration? What did it achieve? What
were Lincoln’s motivations in issuing the Proclamation, according to King? Why does King that
that Americans should commemorate the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation in spite of
the ongoing injustice against African Americans? How does King think we should we
commemorate it? Is his recommendation still timely?
Listen to Dr. King deliver the speech at www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7t35qDYHgc.
If our nation had done nothing more in its whole history than to create just two documents, its
contribution to civilization would be imperishable. The first of these documents is the Declaration
of Independence and the other is that which we are here to honor tonight, the Emancipation
Proclamation. All tyrants, past, present and future, are powerless to bury the truths in these
declarations, no matter how extensive their legions, how vast their power and how malignant their
evil.
The Declaration of Independence proclaimed to a world, organized politically and spiritually
around the concept of the inequality of man, that the dignity of human personality was inherent in
man as a living being. The Emancipation Proclamation was the offspring of the Declaration of
Independence. It was a constructive use of the force of law to uproot a social order which sought
to separate liberty from a segment of humanity.
Our pride and progress could be unqualified if the story might end here. But history reveals
that America has been a schizophrenic personality where these two documents are concerned. On
the one hand she has proudly professed the basic principles inherent in both documents. On the
other hand she has sadly practiced the antithesis of these principles.
If we look at our history with honesty and clarity we will be forced to admit that our Federal
form of government has been, from the day of its birth, weakened in its integrity, confused and
confounded in its direction, by the unresolved race question. We seldom take note or give adequate
significance to the fact that Thomas Jefferson’s text of the Declaration of Independence was
revised by the Continental Congress to eliminate a justifiable attack on King George for
encouraging slave trade. Jefferson knew that such compromises with principle struck at the heart
of the nation’s security and integrity. In 1820, six years before his death, he wrote these melancholy
words:

“But this momentous question (slavery), like a fire bell in the night awakened and filled me
with terror. I considered it at once as the knell of the Union. I regret that I am now to die in the
belief that the useless sacrifice of themselves by the generation of 1776 to acquire selfgovernment and happiness to their country is to be thrown away, and my only consolation is
to be that I live not to weep over it.”
The somber picture (of the condition of the American Negro today) may induce the sober
thought that there is nothing to commemorate about the centennial of the Emancipation
Proclamation. But tragic disappointments and undeserved defeats do not put an end to life, nor do
they wipe out the positive, however submerged it may have become beneath floods of negative
experience.
The Emancipation Proclamation had four enduring results. First, it gave force to the executive
power to change conditions in the national interest on a broad and far-reaching scale. Second, it
dealt a devastating blow to the system of slaveholding and an economy built upon it, which had
been muscular enough to engage in warfare on the Federal government. Third, it enabled the Negro
to play a significant role in his own liberation with the ability to organize and to struggle, with less
of the bestial retaliation his slave status had permitted to his masters. Fourth, it resurrected and
restated the principle of equality upon which the founding of the nation rested.
When Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation it was not the act of an
opportunistic politician issuing a hollow pronouncement to placate a pressure group.
Our truly great presidents were tortured deep in their hearts by the race question. Jefferson
with keen perception saw that the festering sore of slavery debilitated white masters as well as the
Negro. He feared for the future of white children who were taught a false supremacy. His concern
can be summed up in one quotation, “I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.”
Lincoln’s torments are well known, his vacillations were facts. In the seething cauldron of ’62
and ’63 Lincoln was called the “Baboon President” in the North, and “coward”, “assassin” and
“savage” in the South. Yet he searched his way to the conclusions embodied in these words, “In
giving freedom to the slave we assure freedom to the free, honorable alike in what we give and
what we preserve.” On this moral foundation he personally prepared the first draft of the
Emancipation Proclamation, and to emphasize the decisiveness of his course he called his cabinet
together and declared he was not seeking their advice as to its wisdom but only suggestions on
subject matter. Lincoln achieved immortality because he issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
His hesitation had not stayed his hand when historic necessity charted but one course. No President
can be great, or even fit for office, if he attempts to accommodate to injustice to maintain his
political balance.
The Emancipation Proclamation shattered in one blow the slave system, undermining the
foundations of the economy of the rebellious South; and guaranteed that no slave-holding class, if
permitted to exist in defeat, could prepare a new and deadlier war after resuscitation.
The Proclamation opened the door to self-liberation by the Negro upon which he immediately
acted by deserting the plantations in the South and joining the Union armies in the North. Henry
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Wadsworth Longfellow, seeing a regiment of Negroes march through Beacon Street in Boston,
wrote in his diary, “An imposing sight, with something wild and strange about it, like a dream. At
last the North consents to let the Negro fight for freedom.” Beyond the war years the grim and
tortured struggle of Negroes to win their own freedom is an epic of battle against frightful odds. If
we have failed to do enough, it was not the will for freedom that was weak, but the forces against
us which were too strong.
We have spelled out a balance sheet of the Emancipation Proclamation, its contributions and
its deficiencies which our lack of zeal permitted to find expression. There is but one way to
commemorate the Emancipation Proclamation. That is to make its declarations of freedom real; to
reach back to the origins of our nation when our message of equality electrified an unfree world,
and reaffirm democracy by deeds as bold and daring as the issuance of the Emancipation
Proclamation.

161

Man of the People

A Lincoln Memorial
MARK TWAIN
On January 13, 1907, American novelist Mark Twain (1835–1910) delivered these short remarks
at a fundraiser for the Lincoln Birthplace Farm in Kentucky. In building a national memorial to
Lincoln, the Lincoln Farm Association did not want to rely on a few wealthy donors to raise money
for the park. Instead, it called upon any willing American to help fund the park, so long as each
individual did not give less than twenty-five cents or more than twenty-five dollars.
Why is it important that Lincoln was born in a border state? What knowledge or insights did
it afford him so that he could save the Union? Why couldn’t a “New England Brahmin” or “cotton
planter” have done the same thing? What significance does Lincoln’s birthplace have for
Americans, according to Twain? Why is it “worth saving”?
There is a natural human instinct that is gratified by the sight of anything hallowed by association
with a great man or with great deeds. So people make pilgrimages to the town whose streets were
once trodden by Shakespeare, and Hartford guarded her Charter Oak for centuries because it had
once had a hole in it that helped to save the liberties of a Colony.
But it was no accident that planted Lincoln on a Kentucky farm, half way between the lakes
and the Gulf. The association there had substance in it. Lincoln belonged just where he was put. If
the Union was to be saved, it had to be a man of such an origin that should save it. No wintry New
England Brahmin could have done it, or any torrid cotton planter, regarding the distant Yankee as
a species of obnoxious foreigner.
It needed a man of the border, where civil war meant the grapple of brother and brother and
disunion a raw and gaping wound. It needed one who knew slavery not from books only, but as a
living thing, knew the good that was mixed with its evil, and knew the evil not merely as it affected
the negroes, but in its hardly less baneful influence upon the poor whites. It needed one who knew
how human all the parties to the quarrel were, how much alike they were at bottom, who saw them
all reflected in himself, and felt their dissensions like the tearing apart of his own soul. When the
war came Georgia sent an army in gray and Massachusetts an army in blue, but Kentucky raised
armies for both sides. And this man, sprung from Southern poor whites, born on a Kentucky farm
and transplanted to an Illinois village, this man, in whose heart knowledge and charity had left no
room for malice, was marked by Providence as the one to “bind up the Nation’s wounds.” His
birthplace is worth saving.

163

Lincoln, the Man of the People
EDWIN MARKHAM
This poem was selected from 250 submissions to be read at the dedication ceremony of the Lincoln
Memorial in Washington, DC on Memorial Day, 1922. Its author, Oregon poet Edwin Markham
(1852–1940), was already internationally famous as the “Laureate of Labor” for his advocacy of
the working class. His selection may have owed something to the controversy over the Memorial’s
design, which critics protested as undemocratic for placing Lincoln in a Greek temple and thus
raising the man of the people above the people.
How does the poet describe Lincoln—his origins, his nature, his deeds? Do you see in
Markham’s poem a similar tension between Lincoln as common man and Lincoln as great man?
How does Markham handle this tension? What does this tension imply for leadership in America?
When the Norn Mother saw the Whirlwind Hour
Greatening and darkening as it hurried on,
She left the Heaven of Heroes and came down
To make a man to meet the mortal need.
She took the tried clay of the common road—
Clay warm yet with the genial heat of Earth,
Dashed through it all a strain of prophecy;
Tempered the heap with thrill of human tears;
Then mixed a laughter with the serious stuff.
Into the shape she breathed a flame to light
That tender, tragic, ever-changing face.
Here was a man to hold against the world,
A man to match the mountains and the sea.
The color of the ground was in him, the red earth;
The smack and tang of elemental things;
The rectitude and patience of the cliff;
The good-will of the rain that loves all leaves;
The friendly welcome of the wayside well;
The courage of the bird that dares the sea;
The gladness of the wind that shakes the corn;
The pity of the snow that hides all scars;
The secrecy of streams that make their way
Beneath the mountain to the rifted rock;
The tolerance and equity of light
That gives as freely to the shrinking flower
As to the great oak flaring to the wind—
To the grave’s low hill as to the Matterhorn
That shoulders out the sky. Sprung from the West,
He drank the valorous youth of a new world.
The strength of virgin forests braced his mind,
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The hush of spacious prairies stilled his soul.
His words were oaks in acorns; and his thoughts
Were roots that firmly gripped the granite truth.
Up from log cabin to the Capitol,
One fire was on his spirit, one resolve—
To send the keen ax to the root of wrong,
Clearing a free way for the feet of God,
The eyes of conscience testing every stroke,
To make his deed the measure of a man.
He built the rail-pile as he built the State,
Pouring his splendid strength through every blow:
The grip that swung the ax in Illinois
Was on the pen that set a people free.
So came the Captain with the mighty heart;
And when the judgment thunders split the house,
Wrenching the rafters from their ancient rest,
He held the ridgepole up, and spiked again
The rafters of the Home. He held his place—
Held the long purpose like a growing tree—
Held on through blame and faltered not at praise.
And when he fell in whirlwind, he went down
As when a lordly cedar, green with boughs,
Goes down with a great shout upon the hills,
And leaves a lonesome place against the sky.

165

from The People, Yes
CARL SANDBURG
The Great Depression of the 1930s and 1940s crippled the global economy, and made for one of
the most harrowing periods in American history. Carl Sandburg (1878–1967), America’s beloved
Midwestern poet, was inspired to write a book-length poem titled The People, Yes (1936) as an
ode to those hardest hit by unemployment and poverty. In this excerpt from Sandburg’s work, he
calls upon the memory of Lincoln, about whom he had earlier written a four-volume Pulitzer
Prize–winning biography. This work, he later said, was “my footnote to the last words of the
Gettysburg Address.”
How is Lincoln a “mystery”? Look carefully at the list of the things to which Lincoln says
“yes”—what are they, and do they fit together? What about the things to which he says, “no”—
what are they, and do they fit together? How is Lincoln like a poet? What does it mean to say
“yes” (or “no”)? What is the relation between the last two lines of Sandburg’s poem and the rest
of it?
Lincoln?
He was a mystery in smoke and flags
Saying yes to the smoke, yes to the flags,
Yes to the paradoxes of democracy,
Yes to the hopes of government
Of the people by the people for the people,
No to debauchery of the public mind,
No to personal malice nursed and fed,
Yes to the Constitution when a help,
No to the Constitution when a hindrance
Yes to man as a struggler amid illusions,
Each man fated to answer for himself:
Which of the faiths and illusions of mankind
Must I choose for my own sustaining light
To bring me beyond the present wilderness?
Lincoln? Was he a poet?
And did he write verses?
“I have not willingly planted a thorn
in any man’s bosom.”
I shall do nothing through malice: what
I deal with is too vast for malice.”
Death was in the air.
So was birth.

166

Sonnet
ANONYMOUS
This sonnet was published anonymously in The New York Herald in 1937 during the dark days of
the Great Depression. It opens in imitation of William Wordsworth’s poem, “London 1802,” which
begins, “Milton! Thou shouldst be living at this hour: England hath need of thee.” Why does the
poet call upon Lincoln? Why is he—and not some other American hero like Washington—needed
at this particular hour? What is the “Spirit of Lincoln,” and how can the poem’s readers invoke
that spirit? Is that same spirit needed today?
Lincoln, thou shouldst be living at this hour:
Son of the soil, brother of poverty
Those hard sharers of great destiny;
Exemplar of humility and power,
Walking alone to meet thy waiting fate
Whose shadow was reflected on thy brow,
Lincoln, thy people invoke thy spirit now—
Preserve, protect, defend our sovereign state!
Lover of justice and the common good,
Despiser of lies, from thy yonder solitude
Consider the land of thine and freedom’s birth—
Cry out: It shall not perish from the earth!
Engrave upon our hearts that holy vow.
Spirit of Lincoln, thy country needs thee now.

167

The Master
EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON
Edwin Arlington Robinson’s (1869–1935) 1909 tribute to Abraham Lincoln, “The Master,” takes
up the theme of national memory. In the poem, Robinson, a lover of irony, recalls the ridicule
Lincoln once endured, in light of Americans’ newfound appreciation for their sixteenth president
after his successful prosecution of the Civil War and tragic assassination.
Who is speaking in the poem? How does the speaker(s) describe Lincoln? What kind of leader
was he? In what sense is Lincoln “The Master”? Why did “we” initially “sneer” at and “revile”
him? What did “we” learn about Lincoln that caused us to change our opinion of him? Might
Lincoln’s own qualities have contributed to our misunderstanding of him? If yes, how so? Do
“we” have a clearer understanding of Lincoln than before? With the poem’s help, do you?
A flying word from here and there
Had sown the name at which we sneered,
But soon the name was everywhere,
To be reviled and then revered:
A presence to be loved and feared,
We cannot hide it, or deny
That we, the gentlemen who jeered,
May be forgotten by and by.
He came when days were perilous
And hearts of men were sore beguiled;
And having made his note of us,
He pondered and was reconciled.
Was ever master yet so mild
As he, and so untamable?
We doubted, even when he smiled,
Not knowing what he knew so well.
He knew that undeceiving fate
Would shame us whom he served unsought;
He knew that he must wince and wait—
The jest of those for whom he fought;
He knew devoutly what he thought
Of us and of our ridicule;
He knew that we must all be taught
Like little children in a school.
We gave a glamour to the task
That he encountered and saw through,
But little of us did he ask,
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And little did we ever do.
And what appears if we review
The season when we railed and chaffed?
It is the face of one who knew
That we were learning while we laughed.
The face that in our vision feels
Again the venom that we flung,
Transfigured to the world reveals
The vigilance to which we clung.
Shrewd, hallowed, harassed, and among
The mysteries that are untold,
The face we see was never young
Nor could it wholly have been old.
For he, to whom we had applied
Our shopman’s test of age and worth,
Was elemental when he died,
As he was ancient at his birth:
The saddest among kings of earth,
Bowed with a galling crown, this man
Met rancor with a cryptic mirth,
Laconic—and Olympian.
The love, the grandeur, and the fame
Are bounded by the world alone;
The calm, the smouldering, and the flame
Of awful patience were his own:
With him they are forever flown
Past all our fond self-shadowings,
Wherewith we cumber the Unknown
As with inept, Icarian wings.
For we were not as other men:
’Twas ours to soar and his to see;
But we are coming down again,
And we shall come down pleasantly;
Nor shall we longer disagree
On what it is to be sublime,
But flourish in our perigee
And have one Titan at a time.

169

Savior of the Union

The Answer
ZACHARY GOLD
Zachary Gold (1918–53) was an American screenwriter and short story writer. Born in Brooklyn
and educated at the University of Wisconsin, he wrote a considerable number of notable short
stories, variously published in the Saturday Evening Post, Collier’s, and Reader’s Digest.
This story, originally published by Collier’s in 1945, imagines the events leading to Abraham
Lincoln’s delivery of the Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863 through the viewpoint of a
(fictional) black servant to David Wills (1831–94), Lincoln’s host in Gettysburg. What is the
meaning of the title? What question(s) are asked in the story, whether explicitly or implicitly, and
how are they answered? How good a response is Lincoln’s speech to the loss of Marcus’ son, Jeff,
in battle—and by extension, to the terrible carnage of the Civil War? What is the significance of
the math problem Marcus discovers?
The old Negro meant to come up when the room was empty. He thought they must be gone by
now but coming up the stairs he heard voices and he knew that they were still there. It was too
late then. Mr. Wills was standing in the doorway of the room and he saw him.
“You can come in now, Marcus,” he said. “We’ll be leaving in a minute.”
The tall man, the tallest man Marcus had ever seen, was sitting at the desk writing, and he
looked up when Marcus came in and smiled.
It didn’t seem right somehow to smile back, so Marcus did nothing, moving to a corner of the
room, holding his broom and dustpan, waiting, standing quietly as a shadow. Once he wondered
if he dared to say anything about Jeff, but he heard the pen scratch steadily on without a break.
Still, someday he’d tell Jeff that he had thought about it.
He had Jeff’s letter in the inside pocket of his jacket and he felt for it. There was something
even in the feel of the paper that brought the boy back real and shining and alive to his senses.
Jeff never wrote much and it hardly mattered to Marcus that he couldn’t read the words; it was
the letter itself in the stiff envelope that counted. It was getting it and knowing that Jeff was alive
and well in war. That was the main thing.
He heard Mr. Wills say: “All right, Marcus.”
He watched them go but he waited until the tall man descended the steps before he moved.
There wasn’t much to clean. He swept the room, straightened the scarves on the furniture and
emptied a small litter of scraps from the wastebasket. Through the windows of the room he could
see movement on the roads that snaked out of town to the hills.
Marcus remembered then that he had to hurry.

Mr. Wills had told him that he might take the time off if he wanted to come. The whole town
would be there and people had come in from miles away—from Philadelphia, some said—and it
wasn’t something a man should miss. It was a big day and Marcus meant to be there.
Standing in the empty room, he took one final look around. Had he forgotten anything?
Sure enough, he had forgotten to clear off the desk. There was a half sheet of paper lying on
the face of the desk. There were some numbers scribbled on it in a column. He could read
numbers and he glanced down idly at the sheet:
1863 - 1776 = 87
And then because he was eager to be gone, he swept it from the desk and stuffed it in his
pocket as he hurried out.
There was a hint of winter outdoors, although there was no snow yet. Hurrying through the
streets of the town, Marcus wondered whether he had time to stop off to get Jeff’s letter read.
Old Glidden, the Negro schoolteacher, was always glad to read Jeff’s letters to him, and it
wouldn’t take long. Besides, it was a long way out, and a stop would be a warm break in the cold
walk.
Old Glidden was brewing coffee when he came in. He was old—older than Marcus—older
than most men get to be, but he was sharp and quick and he looked up as Marcus came in.
“Got a letter from Jeff?” he said.
“Yes,” Marcus said.
“How is he?”
“The letter feels good,” Marcus said. “The letter feels like Jeff is all right.”
Old Glidden poured two cups of coffee, and then Marcus took the letter out of his pocket. He
passed it to Old Glidden, and while he was opening the letter, Marcus bent eagerly to the coffee
and sipped it in, feeling the welcome heat go through him.
“Marcus.” Old Glidden said.
Marcus looked up.
“This letter isn’t from Jeff.”
“Not from Jeff. Who’d be writing to me?”
For a moment Old Glidden didn’t answer and then he said quickly and baldly, “The letter
says Jeff is dead.”
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Marcus felt the cup shake in his hand and he sat there looking at Old Glidden, suddenly
smelling the warm, pungent vapor of the coffee all around him, sharp as the odor of early clover.
“This is from the captain,” Old Glidden was saying, softly now. “He says he wanted to write
to tell you how Jeff died. He says Jeff was one of the best men he ever knew and he was a good
and brave soldier. He says—”
“Jeff?” Marcus said.
He was reaching for the letter, and Old Glidden gave it to him, saying nothing.
He held it in his hands for a while and then, as he always did after Old Glidden finished with
one of the letters, he put it carefully back into his pocket.
He got up.
Old Glidden said anxiously: “Where are you going, Marcus?”
“I told Mr. Wills I’d come,” he said. “I told him I’d be there.”
“Put on your coat,” Old Glidden said.
Marcus came back for his coat. Old Glidden twisted the red wool scarf around his neck. He
went to the door with Marcus.
“You all right, Marcus?”
And then at the door, looking out at the bare hills sharp as iron humps against the November
sky, Marcus said, “Why Jeff?”
It was because he heard the sound of a crowd that he knew he was there. He was suddenly aware
of the people around him and he looked up. There were more than he had expected and he knew
that he would never find Mr. Wills in a crowd like this. Well, it didn’t matter. Jeff was dead: the
son who was like the morning, full of hope and strength and the promise of laughter.
Marcus reached once more for the letter and drew it out. There was a sheet of paper caught
under the flap of the envelope. He stared at it and then remembered that it was the sheet of paper
he had swept off the desk earlier that morning.
He opened it now, holding it against the envelope, puzzling over the sum:
1863 - 1776 = 87
Eighty-seven? he thought dully; eighty-seven?

He repeated the number to himself but the meaning, whatever it was, escaped him. He
needed Jeff. Jeff was always the one to tell him things, but Jeff was gone now, and who was
there to answer the questions that beat in waves of bitter grief and pain against the breached
fortress of his heart?
Why was he dead? Why Jeff? What was there worth his young body and the curiosity of his
mind and the strong sound of his voice?
He remembered the man who had written the sum and he looked toward the platform at one
end of the field where the tall man, the tallest man Marcus had ever seen, was rising now,
bareheaded in the chill November air.
Marcus leaned forward then, filled with a sudden sense of urgency, listening angrily, wanting
an answer, listening for Jeff, and for all the young everywhere who give their bodies and their
hopes and their lives upon bare and death-strangled fields.
And there in the low hills outside Gettysburg town that lay quiet now under the cold autumn
sun, the tall man who had scribbled the odd sum on a scrap of paper rose to speak:
“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation,
conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so
conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We
have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave
their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this
ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our
poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but
it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the
unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us
to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take
increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we
here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall
have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people,
shall not perish from the earth.”

174

The Perfect Tribute
MARY RAYMOND SHIPMAN
Alabama-born writer Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews (1860–1936) is best known for this short
story, which appeared in Collier’s in July 1906. It was adapted for film twice and sold 600,000
copies as a standalone volume. Although less well known today, Shipman’s fiction is largely
responsible for the myth that Lincoln hastily dashed off the Gettysburg Address on the train on the
way to Pennsylvania.
How does Shipman contrast Lincoln to Edward Everett (1794–1865), the noted orator and
former Senator who delivered the principal speech at Gettysburg, just before Lincoln’s? Why,
according to Shipman, does Lincoln initially believe his speech to be a “failure”? What is the
reaction of the audience to Everett’s speech? How does it differ from the response to Lincoln’s
address? What is “the perfect tribute” of the title? Why might silence be a fitting response to
Lincoln’s speech? What do you make of the anecdote about the dying Confederate soldier at the
end of the story? In particular, what is the significance of his praise of the address and of the
handshake at the end of the story? How are you moved by this story, and why?
On the morning of November 18, 1863, a special train drew out from Washington, carrying a
distinguished company. The presence with them of the Marine Band from the Navy Yard spoke a
public occasion to come, and among the travellers there were those who might be gathered only
for an occasion of importance. There were judges of the Supreme Court of the United States; there
were heads of departments; the general-in-chief of the army and his staff; members of the cabinet.
In their midst, as they stood about the car before settling for the journey, towered a man sad,
preoccupied, unassuming; a man awkward and ill-dressed; a man, as he leaned slouchingly against
the wall, of no grace of look or manner, in whose haggard face seemed to be the suffering of the
sins of the world. Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, journeyed with his party to
assist at the consecration, the next day, of the national cemetery at Gettysburg. The quiet November
landscape slipped past the rattling train, and the President’s deep-set eyes stared out at it gravely,
a bit listlessly. From time to time he talked with those who were about him; from time to time there
were flashes of that quaint wit which is linked, as his greatness, with his name, but his mind was
to-day dispirited, unhopeful. The weight on his shoulders seemed pressing more heavily than he
had courage to press back against it, the responsibility of one almost a dictator in a wide, war-torn
country came near to crushing, at times, the mere human soul and body. There was, moreover, a
speech to be made to-morrow to thousands who would expect their President to say something to
them worth the listening of a people who were making history; something brilliant, eloquent,
strong. The melancholy gaze glittered with a grim smile. He—Abraham Lincoln—the lad bred in
a cabin, tutored in rough schools here and there, fighting for, snatching at crumbs of learning that
fell from rich tables, struggling to a hard knowledge which well knew its own limitations—it was
he of whom this was expected. He glanced across the car. Edward Everett sat there, the orator of
the following day, the finished gentleman, the careful student, the heir of traditions of learning and
breeding, of scholarly instincts and resources. The self-made President gazed at him wistfully.
From him the people might expect and would get a balanced and polished oration. For that end he
had been born, and inheritance and opportunity and inclination had worked together for that end’s
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perfection. While Lincoln had wrested from a scanty schooling a command of English clear and
forcible always, but, he feared, rough-hewn, lacking, he feared, in finish and in breadth—of what
use was it for such a one to try to fashion a speech fit to take a place by the side of Everett’s silver
sentences? He sighed. Yet the people had a right to the best he could give, and he would give them
his best; at least he could see to it that the words were real and were short; at least he would not,
so, exhaust their patience. And the work might as well be done now in the leisure of the journey.
He put a hand, big, powerful, labor-knotted, into first one sagging pocket and then another, in
search of a pencil, and drew out one broken across the end. He glanced about inquiringly—there
was nothing to write upon. Across the car the Secretary of State had just opened a package of
books and their wrapping of brown paper lay on the floor, torn carelessly in a zigzag. The President
stretched a long arm.
“Mr. Seward, may I have this to do a little writing?” he asked, and the Secretary protested,
insisting on finding better material.
But Lincoln, with few words, had his way, and soon the untidy stump of a pencil was at work
and the great head, the deep-lined face, bent over Seward’s bit of brown paper, the whole man
absorbed in his task.
Earnestly, with that “capacity for taking infinite pains” which has been defined as genius, he
labored as the hours flew, building together close-fitted word on word, sentence on sentence. As
the sculptor must dream the statue prisoned in the marble, as the artist must dream the picture to
come from the brilliant unmeaning of his palette, as the musician dreams a song, so he who writes
must have a vision of his finished work before he touches, to begin it, a medium more elastic, more
vivid, more powerful than any other—words—prismatic bits of humanity, old as the Pharaohs,
new as the Arabs of the street, broken, sparkling, alive, from the age-long life of the race. Abraham
Lincoln, with the clear thought in his mind of what he would say, found the sentences that came
to him colorless, wooden. A wonder flashed over him once or twice of Everett’s skill with these
symbols which, it seemed to him, were to the Bostonian a key-board facile to make music, to
Lincoln tools to do his labor. He put the idea aside, for it hindered him. As he found the sword
fitted to his hand he must fight with it; it might be that he, as well as Everett, could say that which
should go straight from him to his people, to the nation who struggled at his back towards a goal.
At least each syllable he said should be chiseled from the rock of his sincerity. So he cut here and
there an adjective, here and there a phrase, baring the heart of his thought, leaving no ribbon or
flower of rhetoric to flutter in the eyes of those with whom he would be utterly honest. And when
he had done he read the speech and dropped it from his hand to the floor and stared again from the
window. It was the best he could do, and it was a failure. So, with the pang of the workman who
believes his work done wrong, he lifted and folded the torn bit of paper and put it in his pocket,
and put aside the thought of it, as of a bad thing which he might not better, and turned and talked
cheerfully with his friends.
At eleven o’clock on the morning of the day following, on November 19, 1863, a vast, silent
multitude billowed, like waves of the sea, over what had been not long before the battle-field of
Gettysburg. There were wounded soldiers there who had beaten their way four months before
through a singing fire across these quiet fields, who had seen the men die who were buried here;
there were troops, grave and responsible, who must soon go again into battle; there were the rank
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and file of an everyday American gathering in surging thousands; and above them all, on the openair platform, there were the leaders of the land, the pilots who to-day lifted a hand from the wheel
of the ship of state to salute the memory of those gone down in the storm. Most of the men in that
group of honor are now passed over to the majority, but their names are not dead in American
history—great ghosts who walk still in the annals of their country, their flesh-and-blood faces were
turned attentively that bright, still November afternoon towards the orator of the day, whose voice
held the audience.
For two hours Everett spoke and the throng listened untired, fascinated by the dignity of his
high-bred look and manner almost as much, perhaps, as by the speech which has taken a place in
literature. As he had been expected to speak he spoke, of the great battle, of the causes of the war,
of the results to come after. It was an oration which missed no shade of expression, no reach of
grasp. Yet there were those in the multitude, sympathetic to a unit as it was with the Northern
cause, who grew restless when this man who had been crowned with so thick a laurel wreath by
Americans spoke of Americans as rebels, of a cause for which honest Americans were giving their
lives as a crime. The days were war days, and men’s passions were inflamed, yet there were men
who listened to Edward Everett who believed that his great speech would have been greater
unenforced with bitterness.
As the clear, cultivated voice fell into silence, the mass of people burst into a long storm of
applause, for they knew that they had heard an oration which was an event. They clapped and
cheered him again and again and again, as good citizens acclaim a man worthy of honor whom
they have delighted to honor. At last, as the ex-Governor of Massachusetts, the ex-ambassador to
England, the ex-Secretary of State, the ex-Senator of the United States—handsome, distinguished,
graceful, sure of voice and of movement—took his seat, a tall, gaunt figure detached itself from
the group on the platform and slouched slowly across the open space and stood facing the audience.
A stir and a whisper brushed over the field of humanity, as if a breeze had rippled a monstrous bed
of poppies. This was the President. A quivering silence settled down and every eye was wide to
watch this strange, disappointing appearance, every ear alert to catch the first sound of his voice.
Suddenly the voice came, in a queer, squeaking falsetto. The effect on the audience was
irrepressible, ghastly. After Everett’s deep tones, after the strain of expectancy, this extraordinary,
gaunt apparition, this high, thin sound from the huge body, were too much for the American
crowd’s sense of humor, always stronger than its sense of reverence. A suppressed yet
unmistakable titter caught the throng, ran through it, and was gone. Yet no one who knew the
President’s face could doubt that he had heard it and had understood. Calmly enough, after a pause
almost too slight to be recognized, he went on, and in a dozen words his tones had gathered volume,
he had come to his power and dignity. There was no smile now on any face of those who listened.
People stopped breathing rather, as if they feared to miss an inflection. A loose-hung figure, six
feet four inches high, he towered above them, conscious of and quietly ignoring the bad first
impression, unconscious of a charm of personality which reversed that impression within a
sentence. That these were his people was his only thought. He had something to say to them; what
did it matter about him or his voice?
“Fourscore and seven years ago,” spoke the President, “our fathers brought forth on this
continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are
created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation,
177

so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We
have come to dedicate a portion of it as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives
that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
“But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow, this ground.
The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power
to add or to detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never
forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work
which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated
to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion
to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly
resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new
birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish
from the earth.”
There was no sound from the silent, vast assembly. The President’s large figure stood before
them, at first inspired, glorified with the thrill and swing of his words, lapsing slowly in the stillness
into lax, ungraceful lines. He stared at them a moment with sad eyes full of gentleness, of
resignation, and in the deep quiet they stared at him. Not a hand was lifted in applause. Slowly the
big, awkward man slouched back across the platform and sank into his seat, and yet there was no
sound of approval, of recognition from the audience; only a long sigh ran like a ripple on an ocean
through rank after rank. In Lincoln’s heart a throb of pain answered it. His speech had been, as he
feared it would be, a failure. As he gazed steadily at these his countrymen who would not give him
even a little perfunctory applause for his best effort, he knew that the disappointment of it cut into
his soul. And then he was aware that there was music, the choir was singing a dirge; his part was
done, and his part had failed.
When the ceremonies were over Everett at once found the President. “Mr. President,” he began,
“your speech—” but Lincoln had interrupted, flashing a kindly smile down at him, laying a hand
on his shoulder.
“We’ll manage not to talk about my speech, Mr. Everett,” he said. “This isn’t the first time
I’ve felt that my dignity ought not to permit me to be a public speaker.”
He went on in a few cordial sentences to pay tribute to the orator of the occasion. Everett
listened thoughtfully and when the chief had done, “Mr. President,” he said simply, “I should be
glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near the central idea of the occasion in two hours as
you did in two minutes.”
But Lincoln shook his head and laughed and turned to speak to a newcomer with no change of
opinion—he was apt to trust his own judgments.
The special train which left Gettysburg immediately after the solemnities on the battle-field
cemetery brought the President’s party into Washington during the night. There was no rest for the
man at the wheel of the nation next day, but rather added work until, at about four in the afternoon,
he felt sorely the need of air and went out from the White House alone, for a walk. His mind still
178

ran on the events of the day before—the impressive, quiet multitude, the serene sky of November
arched, in the hushed interregnum of the year, between the joy of summer and the war of winter,
over those who had gone from earthly war to heavenly joy. The picture was deeply engraved in
his memory; it haunted him. And with it came a soreness, a discomfort of mind which had haunted
him as well in the hours between—the chagrin of the failure of his speech. During the day he had
gently but decisively put aside all reference to it from those about him; he had glanced at the headlines in the newspapers with a sarcastic smile; the Chief Executive must he flattered, of course;
newspaper notices meant nothing. He knew well that he had made many successful speeches; no
man of his shrewdness could be ignorant that again and again he had carried an audience by storm;
yet he had no high idea of his own speech-making, and yesterday’s affair had shaken his
confidence more. He remembered sadly that, even for the President, no hand, no voice had been
lifted in applause.
“It must have been pretty poor stuff,” he said half aloud; “yet I thought it was a fair little
composition. I meant to do well by them.”
His long strides had carried him into the outskirts of the city, and suddenly, at a corner, from
behind a hedge, a young boy of fifteen years or so came rushing toward him and tripped and
stumbled against him, and Lincoln kept him from falling with a quick, vigorous arm. The lad
righted himself and tossed back his thick, light hair and stared haughtily, and the President,
regarding him, saw that his blue eyes were blind with tears.
“Do you want all of the public highway? Can’t a gentleman from the South even walk in the
streets without—without—” and the broken sentence ended in a sob.
The anger and the insolence of the lad were nothing to the man who towered above him—to
that broad mind this was but a child in trouble. “My boy, the fellow that’s interfering with your
walking is down inside of you,” he said gently, and with that the astonished youngster opened his
wet eyes wide and laughed—a choking, childish laugh that pulled at the older man’s heart-strings.
“That’s better, sonny,” he said, and patted the slim shoulder. “Now tell me what’s wrong with the
world. Maybe I might help straighten it.”
“Wrong, wrong!” the child raved; “everything’s wrong,” and launched into a mad tirade
against the government from the President down.
Lincoln listened patiently, and when the lad paused for breath, “Go ahead,” he said goodnaturedly. “Every little helps.”
With that the youngster was silent and drew himself up with stiff dignity, offended yet
fascinated; unable to tear himself away from this strange giant who was so insultingly kind under
his abuse, who yet inspired him with such a sense of trust and of hope.
“I want a lawyer,” he said impulsively, looking up anxiously into the deep-lined face inches
above him. “I don’t know where to find a lawyer in this horrible city, and I must have one—I can’t
wait—it may be too late—I want a lawyer now” and once more he was in a fever of excitement.

“What do you want with a lawyer?” Again the calm, friendly tone quieted him.
“I want him to draw a will. My brother is—” he caught his breath with a gasp in a desperate
effort for self-control. “They say he’s—dying.” He finished the sentence with a quiver in his voice,
and the brave front and the trembling, childish tone went to the man’s heart. “I don’t believe it—
he can’t be dying,” the boy talked on, gathering courage. “But anyway, he wants to make a will,
and—and I reckon—it may be that he—he must.”
“I see,” the other answered gravely, and the young, torn soul felt an unreasoning confidence
that he had found a friend. “Where is your brother?”
“He’s in the prison hospital there—in that big building,” he pointed down the street. “He’s
captain in our army—in the Confederate army. He was wounded at Gettysburg.”
“Oh!” The deep-set eyes gazed down at the fresh face, its muscles straining under grief and
responsibility, with the gentlest, most fatherly pity. “I think I can manage your job, my boy,” he
said. “I used to practice law in a small way myself, and I’ll be glad to draw the will for you.”
The young fellow had whirled him around before he had finished the sentence. “Come,” he
said. “Don’t waste time talking—why didn’t you tell me before?” and then he glanced up. He saw
the ill-fitting clothes, the crag-like, rough-modelled head, the awkward carriage of the man; he was
too young to know that what he felt beyond these was greatness. There was a tone of patronage in
his voice and in the cock of his aristocratic young head as he spoke. “We can pay you, you know—
we’re not paupers.” He fixed his eyes on Lincoln’s face to watch the impression as he added, “My
brother is Carter Hampton Blair, of Georgia. I’m Warrington Blair. The Hampton Court Blairs,
you know.”
“Oh!” said the President.
The lad went on:
“It would have been all right if Nellie hadn’t left Washington to-day—my sister, Miss Eleanor
Hampton Blair. Carter was better this morning, and so she went with the Senator. She’s secretary
to Senator Warrington, you know. He’s on the Yankee side”—the tone was full of contempt—”but
yet he’s our cousin, and when he offered Nellie the position she would take it in spite of Carter
and me. We were so poor”—the lad’s pride was off its guard for the moment, melted in the
soothing trust with which this stranger thrilled his soul. It was a relief to him to talk, and the large
hand which rested on his shoulder as they walked seemed an assurance that his words were
accorded respect and understanding. “Of course, if Nellie had been here she would have known
how to get a lawyer, but Carter had a bad turn half an hour ago, and the doctor said he might get
better or he might die any minute, and Carter remembered about the money, and got so excited
that they said it was hurting him, so I said I’d get a lawyer, and I rushed out, and the first thing I
ran against you. I’m afraid I wasn’t very polite.” The smile on the gaunt face above him was all
the answer he needed. “I’m sorry. I apologize. It certainly was good of you to come right back
with me.” The child’s manner was full of the assured graciousness of a high-born gentleman; there
was a lovable quality in his very patronage, and the suffering and the sweetness and the pride
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combined held Lincoln by his sense of humor as well as by his soft heart. “You sha’n’t lose
anything by it,” the youngster went on. “We may be poor, but we have more than plenty to pay
you, I’m sure. Nellie has some jewels, you see—oh, I think several things yet. Is it very expensive
to draw a will?” he asked wistfully.
“No, sonny; it’s one of the cheapest things a man can do,” was the hurried answer, and the
child’s tone showed a lighter heart.
“I’m glad of that, for, of course, Carter wants to leave—to leave as much as he can. You see,
that’s what the will is about—Carter is engaged to marry Miss Sally Maxfield, and they would
have been married now if he hadn’t been wounded and taken prisoner. So, of course, like any
gentleman that’s engaged, he wants to give her everything that he has. Hampton Court has to come
to me after Carter, but there’s some money—quite a lot—only we can’t get it now. And that ought
to go to Carter’s wife, which is what she is—just about—and if he doesn’t make a will it won’t. It
will come to Nellie and me if—if anything should happen to Carter.”
“So you’re worrying for fear you’ll inherit some money?” Lincoln asked meditatively.
“Of course,” the boy threw back impatiently. “Of course, it would be a shame if it came to
Nellie and me, for we couldn’t ever make her take it. We don’t need it—I can look after Nellie and
myself,” he said proudly, with a quick, tossing motion of his fair head that was like the motion of
a spirited, thoroughbred horse. They had arrived at the prison. “I can get you through all right.
They all know me here,” he spoke over his shoulder reassuringly to the President with a friendly
glance. Dashing down the corridors in front, he did not see the guards salute the tall figure which
followed him; too preoccupied to wonder at the ease of their entrance, he flew along through the
big building, and behind him in large strides came his friend.
A young man—almost a boy, too—of twenty-three or twenty-four, his handsome face a white
shadow, lay propped against the pillows, watching the door eagerly as they entered.
“Good boy, Warry,” he greeted the little fellow; “you’ve got me a lawyer,” and the pale
features lighted with a smile of such radiance as seemed incongruous in this gruesome place. He
held out his hand to the man who swung toward him, looming mountainous behind his brother’s
slight figure. “Thank you for coming,” he said cordially, and in his tone was the same air of a grand
seigneur as in the lad’s. Suddenly a spasm of pain caught him, his head fell into the pillows, his
muscles twisted, his arm about the neck of the kneeling boy tightened convulsively. Yet while the
agony still held him he was smiling again with gay courage. “It nearly blew me away,” he
whispered, his voice shaking, but his eyes bright with amusement. “We’d better get to work before
one of those little breezes carries me too far. There’s pen and ink on the table, Mr.—my brother
did not tell me your name.”
“Your brother and I met informally,” the other answered, setting the materials in order for
writing. “He charged into me like a young steer,” and the boy, out of his deep trouble, laughed
delightedly. “My name is Lincoln.”

The young officer regarded him. “That’s a good name from your standpoint—you are, I take
it, a Northerner?”
The deep eyes smiled whimsically. “I’m on that side of the fence. You may call me a Yankee
if you’d like.”
“There’s something about you, Mr. Lincoln,” the young Georgian answered gravely, with a
kindly and unconscious condescension, “which makes me wish to call you, if I may, a friend.”
He had that happy instinct which shapes a sentence to fall on its smoothest surface, and the
President, in whom the same instinct was strong, felt a quick comradeship with this enemy who,
about to die, saluted him. He put out his great fist swiftly. “Shake hands,” he said. “Friends it is.”
“‘Till death us do part,’” said the officer slowly, and smiled, and then threw back his head with
a gesture like the boy’s. “We must do the will,” he said peremptorily.
“Yes, now we’ll fix this will business, Captain Blair,” the big man answered cheerfully. “When
your mind’s relieved about your plunder you can rest easier and get well faster.”
The sweet, brilliant smile of the Southerner shone out, his arm drew the boy’s shoulder closer,
and the President, with a pang, knew that his friend knew that he must die.
With direct, condensed question and clear answer the simple will was shortly drawn and the
impromptu lawyer rose to take his leave. But the wounded man put out his hand.
“Don’t go yet,” he pleaded, with the imperious, winning accent which was characteristic of
both brothers. The sudden, radiant smile broke again over the face, young, drawn with suffering,
prophetic of close death. “I like you,” he brought out frankly. “I’ve never liked a stranger as much
in such short order before.”
His head, fair as the boy’s, lay back on the pillows, locks of hair damp against the whiteness,
the blue eyes shone like jewels from the colorless face, a weak arm stretched protectingly about
the young brother who pressed against him. There was so much courage, so much helplessness, so
much pathos in the picture that the President’s great heart throbbed with a desire to comfort them.
“I want to talk to you about that man Lincoln, your namesake,” the prisoner’s deep, uncertain
voice went on, trying pathetically to make conversation which might interest, might hold his guest.
The man who stood hesitating controlled a startled movement. “I’m Southern to the core of me,
and I believe with my soul in the cause I’ve fought for, the cause I’m—” he stopped, and his hand
caressed the boy’s shoulder. “But that President of yours is a remarkable man. He’s regarded as a
red devil by most of us down home, you know,” and he laughed, “but I’ve admired him all along.
He’s inspired by principle, not by animosity, in this fight; he’s real and he’s powerful and”—he
lifted his head impetuously and his eyes flashed—”and, by Jove, have you read his speech of
yesterday in the papers?”
Lincoln gave him an odd look. “No,” he said, “I haven’t.”
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“Sit down,” Blair commanded. “Don’t grudge a few minutes to a man in hard luck. I want to
tell you about that speech. You’re not so busy but that you ought to know.”
“Well, yes,” said Lincoln, “perhaps I ought.” He took out his watch and made a quick mental
calculation. “It’s only a question of going without my dinner, and the boy is dying,” he thought.
“If I can give him a little pleasure the dinner is a small matter.” He spoke again. “It’s the soldiers
who are the busy men, not the lawyers, nowadays,” he said. “I’ll be delighted to spend a half hour
with you, Captain Blair, if I won’t tire you.”
“That’s good of you,” the young officer said, and a king on his throne could not have been
gracious in a more lordly yet unconscious way.
“By the
Lincoln?”

way,

this

great

man

isn’t

any

relation

of

yours,

is

he,

Mr.

“He’s a kind of connection—through my grandfather,” Lincoln acknowledged. “But I know
just the sort of fellow he is—you can say what you want.”
“What I want to say first is this: that he yesterday made one of the great speeches of history.”
“What?” demanded Lincoln, staring.
“I know what I’m talking about.” The young fellow brought his thin fist down on the
bedclothes. “My father was a speaker—all my uncles and my grandfather were speakers. I’ve been
brought up on oratory. I’ve studied and read the best models since I was a lad in knee-breeches.
And I know a great speech when I see it. And when Nellie—my sister—brought in the paper this
morning and read that to me I told her at once that not six times since history began has a speech
been made which was its equal. That was before she told me what the Senator said.”
“What did the Senator say?” asked the quiet man who listened.
“It was Senator Warrington, to whom my sister is—is acting as secretary.” The explanation
was distasteful, but he went on, carried past the jog by the interest of his story. “He was at
Gettysburg yesterday, with the President’s party. He told my sister that the speech so went home
to the hearts of all those thousands of people that when it was ended it was as if the whole audience
held its breath—there was not a hand lifted to applaud. One might as well applaud the Lord’s
Prayer—it would have been sacrilege. And they all felt it—down to the lowest. There was a long
minute of reverent silence, no sound from all that great throng—it seems to me, an enemy, that it
was the most perfect tribute that has ever been paid by any people to any orator.”
The boy, lifting his hand from his brother’s shoulder to mark the effect of his brother’s words,
saw with surprise that in the strange lawyer’s eyes were tears. But the wounded man did not notice.
“It will live, that speech. Fifty years from now American schoolboys will be learning it as part
of their education. It is not merely my opinion,” he went on. “Warrington says the whole country

is ringing with it. And you haven’t read it? And your name’s Lincoln? Warry, boy, where’s the
paper Nellie left? I’ll read the speech to Mr. Lincoln myself.”
The boy had sprung to his feet and across the room, and had lifted a folded newspaper from
the table. “Let me read it, Carter—it might tire you.”
The giant figure which had crouched, elbows on knees, in the shadows by the narrow hospital
cot, heaved itself slowly upward till it loomed at its full height in air. Lincoln turned his face toward
the boy standing under the flickering gas-jet and reading with soft, sliding inflections the words
which had for twenty-four hours been gall and wormwood to his memory. And as the sentences
slipped from the lad’s mouth, behold, a miracle happened, for the man who had written them knew
that they were great. He knew then, as many a lesser one has known, that out of a little lovingkindness had come great joy; that he had wrested with gentleness a blessing from his enemy.
“‘Fourscore and seven years ago,’” the fresh voice began, and the face of the dying man stood
out white in the white pillows, sharp with eagerness, and the face of the President shone as he
listened as if to new words. The field of yesterday, the speech, the deep silence which followed it,
all were illuminated, as his mind went back, with new meaning. With the realization that the
stillness had meant, not indifference, but perhaps, as this generous enemy had said, “The most
perfect tribute ever paid by any people to any orator,” there came to him a rush of glad strength to
bear the burdens of the nation. The boy’s tones ended clearly, deliberately:
“‘We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under
God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the
people shall not perish from the earth.’”
There was deep stillness in the hospital ward as there had been stillness on the field of
Gettysburg. The soldier’s voice broke it. “It’s a wonderful speech,” he said. “There’s nothing finer.
Other men have spoken stirring words, for the North and for the South, but never before, I think,
with the love of both breathing through them. It is only the greatest who can be a partisan without
bitterness, and only such to-day may call himself not Northern or Southern, but American. To feel
that your enemy can fight you to death without malice, with charity—it lifts country, it lifts
humanity to something worth dying for. They are beautiful, broad words and the sting of war
would be drawn if the soul of Lincoln could be breathed into the armies. Do you agree with me?”
he demanded abruptly, and Lincoln answered slowly, from a happy heart.
“I believe it is a good speech,” he said.
The impetuous Southerner went on: “Of course, it’s all wrong from my point of view,” and the
gentleness of his look made the words charming. “The thought which underlies it is warped,
inverted, as I look at it, yet that doesn’t alter my admiration of the man and of his words. I’d like
to put my hand in his before I die,” he said, and the sudden, brilliant, sweet smile lit the
transparency of his face like a lamp; “and I’d like to tell him that I know that what we’re all fighting
for, the best of us, is the right of our country as it is given us to see it.” He was laboring a bit with
the words now as if he were tired, but he hushed the boy imperiously. “When a man gets so close
to death’s door that he feels the wind through it from a larger atmosphere, then the small things
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are blown away. The bitterness of the fight has faded for me. I only feel the love of country, the
satisfaction of giving my life for it. The speech—that speech—has made it look higher and
simpler—your side as well as ours. I would like to put my hand in Abraham Lincoln’s—”
The clear, deep voice, with its hesitations, its catch of weakness, stopped short. Convulsively
the hand shot out and caught at the great fingers that hung near him, pulling the President, with the
strength of agony, to his knees by the cot. The prisoner was writhing in an attack of mortal pain,
while he held, unknowing that he held it, the hand of his new friend in a torturing grip. The door
of death had opened wide and a stormy wind was carrying the bright, conquered spirit into that
larger atmosphere of which he had spoken. Suddenly the struggle ceased, the unconscious head
rested in the boy’s arms, and the hand of the Southern soldier lay quiet, where he had wished to
place it, in the hand of Abraham Lincoln.

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Centennial of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address
DWIGHT EISENHOWER
To commemorate the centennial of the Gettysburg Address, President John F. Kennedy (1917–63)
was asked to speak during a special event at the Gettysburg National Cemetery. Already scheduled
on a trip to Texas, Kennedy declined the invitation, and former President Dwight D. Eisenhower
(1890–1969) stepped in to honor Lincoln’s memory. Eisenhower’s speech exalting America’s
great fallen hero would be soon overshadowed by another event that occurred just days later: the
assassination of President Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963.
What was Lincoln’s “faith”? Why can we not finish the work called for in the Gettysburg
Address? If that work is still—and will remain—unfinished, how could Lincoln’s faith be
“justified”? How, according to Eisenhower, can we properly pay tribute to Lincoln? Does this
suggestion make sense to you? Is it sufficient?
We mark today the centennial of an immortal address. We stand where Abraham Lincoln stood as,
a century ago, he gave to the world words as moving in their solemn cadence as they are timeless
in their meaning. Little wonder it is that, as here we sense his deep dedication to freedom, our own
dedication takes added strength.
Lincoln had faith that the ancient drums of Gettysburg, throbbing mutual defiance from the
battle lines of the blue and the gray, would one day beat in unison, to summon a people, happily
united in peace, to fulfill, generation by generation, a noble destiny. His faith has been justified—
but the unfinished work of which he spoke in 1863 is still unfinished; because of human frailty, it
always will be. Where we see the serenity with which time has invested this hallowed ground,
Lincoln saw the scarred earth and felt the press of personal grief. Yet he lifted his eyes to the
future, the future that is our present. He foresaw a new birth of freedom, a freedom and equality
for all which, under God, would restore the purpose and meaning of America, defining a goal that
challenges each of us to attain his full stature of citizenship.
We read Lincoln’s sentiments, we ponder his words—the beauty of the sentiments he
expressed enthralls us; the majesty of his words holds us spellbound—but we have not paid to his
message its just tribute until we—ourselves—live it. For well he knew that to live for country is a
duty, as demanding as is the readiness to die for it. So long as this truth remains our guiding light,
self-government in this nation will never die. True to democracy’s basic principle that all are
created equal and endowed by the Creator with priceless human rights, the good citizen now, as
always before, is called upon to defend the rights of others as he does his own; to subordinate self
to the country’s good; to refuse to take the easy way today that may invite
national disaster tomorrow; to accept the truth that the work still to be done awaits his doing.
On this day of commemoration, Lincoln still asks of each of us, as clearly as he did of those
who heard his words a century ago, to give that increased devotion to the cause for which soldiers
in all our wars have given the last full measure of devotion. Our answer, the only worthy one we
can render to the memory of the great emancipator, is ever to defend, protect and pass on
unblemished, to coming generations the heritage—the trust—that Abraham Lincoln, and all the
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ghostly legions of patriots of the past, with unflinching faith in their God, have bequeathed to us—
a nation free, with liberty, dignity, and justice for all.

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Abraham Lincoln’s Re-founding of the Nation
LEON R. KASS
This essay interpreting the Gettysburg Address is based on a talk given in June 2007 at the AEI
World Forum in Beaver Creek, Colorado, by humanist educator and AEI scholar Leon R. Kass (b.
1939). What was Lincoln’s purpose for the Gettysburg Address, according to Kass? How does the
structure and imagery of the Address serve this purpose? How, and why, does Lincoln change the
Declaration of Independence? How does he reinterpret the American Founding? How is the
nation’s “new birth of freedom” related to its “first” birth? How are the principles of freedom
and equality to be joined under this “new founding”? Who is responsible for the nation’s rebirth
and re-founding? Why is the Gettysburg Address still meaningful to us today?
From the time I was old enough to have a hero, Abraham Lincoln has been mine. At first, it was
largely an accident of birth. Born in Chicago on Lincoln’s birthday (1939), to immigrant parents
who admired Lincoln as the Great Emancipator, I was educated in a public school whose
classrooms displayed portraits of Lincoln (and George Washington) and which closed annually
(on the exact date, February 12th) in honor of Lincoln’s birthday, still in Illinois a civic holiday.
One of my prize possessions (a birthday present, I believe) was a large loose-leaf scrapbook
bearing a large portrait of President Lincoln as its leather-bound cover. I loved Lincoln well before
I really knew why he deserved my—and our—veneration.
Time and study—not to mention living in the United States under thirteen presidents—have
steadily increased my love and admiration of Lincoln. He wins my heart because of his exemplary
character, his deep understanding of human affairs, his principled and prudent leadership during
the Civil, his courageous deeds, and, not least, his way with words and his inspiring speeches.
Justly celebrated as the best among those speeches is the address Lincoln gave at Gettysburg on
November 19, 1863.
The Gettysburg Address has been memorized, recited, and admired. Countless scholars have
discussed its rhetorical devices, literary merit, and political reception. But few have attended to the
thought of Lincoln’s speech and its deeper purposes, purposes that it continues to serve. Many
people recognize that this funeral oration, honoring the Union dead in the battle that marked a
turning point in the war against Southern rebellion, was clearly even more a summons to the living
to prosecute to victorious conclusion a war that, despite the victory at Gettysburg, was not going
well enough: what Lincoln calls “the great task remaining before us” is, first and foremost, the
winning of the war. But few people see that the speech offers Lincoln’s reinterpretation of the
American Founding, his construal of the war as a test of that founding, and his own radical call for
a second birth of our nation, a nation to be reborn through passing that bloody test. Central to
Lincoln’s declaration of America reborn is his revisionist reading of our original birth
announcement, the Declaration of Independence and, with it, his own as-it-were baptismal
teaching on the relation between liberty and equality, crucial to our new birth of freedom.
The express rhetorical purpose of the speech is clearly evident on the surface. The occasion is
the dedication of a Union cemetery at Gettysburg for the burial of the nearly 5,300 Union fallen
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(killed in 3 days; another 17,000 Union soldiers were wounded; 27,000 Confederate soldiers were
killed or wounded). Lincoln acknowledges that, “it is altogether fitting and proper that we should
do this.” But he is much less interested in dedicating a patch of earth to honor the dead than he is
in inspiring his listeners, “us the living,” who are—despite dispiriting loss and grief— “to be
dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly
advanced,” dedicated to “the great task remaining before us,” namely, victory in the war and the
restoration of the Union, now on a more solid foundation. But it is the outer frame of the speech,
and especially its beginning and its end, that bespeaks Lincoln’s larger purpose: to create for future
generations an interpretation of the war, and especially the war’s relation to both the once “new
nation,” brought forth by “our fathers” and “conceived in liberty,” and “this nation,” which,
through the sacrifice of war and our dedication and resolve, “shall have a new birth of freedom.”
Before turning to those passages at the beginning and the end, we need to see the relation of this
speech to a concern that had preoccupied Lincoln for at least 25 years.
In January 1838, in a remarkable speech to the Young Men’s Lyceum in Springfield, Illinois,
Lincoln (age 28) worried about the perpetuation of our institutions, now that the Founding
generation had gone to rest and those who had known them were also dying out. It is an astonishing
speech, informed by profound reflections on law and lawlessness, soaring political ambition
(including his own), and the vulnerability of free institutions in democratic times to both mob rule
and tyranny. It is in this speech that Lincoln asserts that perpetuating our political institutions
requires the development of a “political religion,” comprising reverence for the laws and, more
generally, sober sentiments “hewn from the solid quarry of sober reason”—among them, the
founding principles. As Lincoln put it:
. . . Passion has helped us; but can do so no more. It will in future be our enemy. Reason, cold,
calculating, unimpassioned reason, must furnish all the materials for our future support and
defense.—Let those materials be moulded into general intelligence; sound morality; and, in
particular, a reverence for the constitution and laws.
Lincoln remained, throughout his life, obsessed with the problem of attaching his fellow
citizens to the American republic. And one might well say that his speeches taken as a whole—
unsurpassed in the annals of American political utterance—follow his advice in the Lyceum
address: they articulate the clear rational principles of the American Republic, they are molded
into persuasive and sound moral arguments, and they are always in the service of enhancing
reverence for the constitution and its laws. But his greatest public utterances were prophetic
speeches, speeches that soar and move the soul because they display powers higher than cold,
calculating, unimpassioned reason. These supremely inspiring speeches, I submit, were crafted by
Lincoln with a view to their becoming canonical texts of the much-needed political religion.
The Gettysburg Address is, in both form and substance, the perfect text for the “bible” of
American political religion. It is short enough to be memorized: 3 paragraphs of progressively
increasing length, 10 sentences, 272 words (only 130 different words), 74% of which are
monosyllables. The polysyllabic words stand out against the little words, and only a few pregnant
longer words appear more than once: among the disyllabic words, only conceived, living, rather,
people (three times in the last clause), and especially nation (5 times: “new nation” in paragraph
1; “that nation,” “any nation,” and “that nation” in paragraph 2; but “this nation” in the last
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sentence of paragraph 3, this nation that shall be reborn into freedom). Among still longer words,
Lincoln uses more than once only devotion (twice), consecrate or consecrated (twice), and—the
most important word in the speech—dedicate or dedicated (6 times). Noteworthy also is the
echoing use of the word “here”—heard 8 times—the importance of which will be clear by the end.
The three paragraphs of progressively increasing length refer to time periods and actors of
progressively increasing rhetorical importance: (paragraph 1) the past (“Four-score and seven
years ago”; “our fathers”; 30 words); (paragraph 2) the very immediate present (“Now”; we who
are engaged in a great civil war, but mainly a much smaller we who are, right here and right now,
met on a great battlefield of that war and who, fittingly and properly, have come to dedicate a
portion of that field; 73 words); and (paragraph 3) our future in relation to our present and our past
(contrasting “the brave men” who fought and died, with “us the living”); and moving from (a) our
inability through speech to dedicate ground better consecrated by the deeds of the brave men, to
(b) “us the living” dedicating ourselves to the great task remaining before us, (c) to “we here highly
resolv[ing]” to win the war, so that (d) certain great things will follow, both for this nation (“a new
birth”) and also for people everywhere (169 words, nearly half of them in the last sentence about
our dedication). The speech, in its spatial references, has an hour-glass structure, widest below: it
opens “on this continent,” narrows in its center to “a great battle-field” and, even narrower, to “a
portion of that field,” but finishes by suggesting that our dedication “here” can ensure that popular
government will never perish from the whole earth.
But these are but smaller formal details, important to be sure for the rhetorical effect, but hardly
by themselves enough to give the speech canonical standing. That comes from both its content and
its elevated tone and expression, and especially from its famous beginning and end. Let us examine
them.
Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation,
conceived in Liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Four score and seven years ago. Why does Lincoln begin with this expression? Scholars note
that the language is Biblical, and that it echoes the 90th Psalm:
The days of our years are three score and ten,
Or even by reason of strength four score years.
But few notice that, by this pious biblical reference, Lincoln is also making a crucial
substantive point: the deed he is about to recount, he intimates, happened not in living memory;
four score and seven years ago none alive today (in 1863) had yet been born. Lincoln’s beginning
reflects and highlights his long-standing concern about perpetuation in a fully post-revolutionary
age. He starts by reminding us of things we could not possibly remember.
The theme and imagery of the first paragraph, and indeed of the frame of the speech as a whole,
is birth: the birth and, at the end, the re-birth, of the nation. Four score and seven, or 87, years
identifies the birth year as 1776, the year of the Declaration of Independence, not 1775, the year
of Lexington and Concord, not 1787, the year of the Constitution. Lincoln gives no hint of the
bloody war of American separation and secession that secured in deed the Declaration’s verbal
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assertion of our independence from Great Britain. Instead, Lincoln gives us an image of quiet
generative congress. According to Lincoln, our fathers—after pointing out that we could not have
known them, Lincoln calls the founders our fathers, rather than our grandfathers or forefathers,
bringing us close to them in spirit and inviting pious gratitude for our patrimony—brought forth
or sired upon this continent (as mother) a new nation. It is new not only in historical fact. It is new
also in principle: it was, Lincoln tells us, “conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition
that all men are created equal.” Several points deserve emphasis, especially when we compare
Lincoln’s description of the founding birth with the birth certificate language of the Declaration of
Independence itself.
In the Declaration the signers declare: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are
created equal.” In Lincoln’s version, three important changes are made. First, Lincoln changes a
“self-evident truth” to a “proposition.” Both notions come from geometry (Lincoln had studied
Euclid): a self-evident truth is an axiom (for example, “The whole is greater than the part” or
“Things equal to the same thing are also equal to one another”), which neither admits of proof nor
requires proof, for it contains its evidence in itself. If you understand the statement, you are
compelled also to affirm it as true. According to the Declaration, human equality is held to be an
axiom, evident in itself: if one understands the meaning of “men,” one must immediately see that
all men (both male and female 26) are equally human; and, further, one must see that they equally
possess, by virtue of their equal humanity, inalienable rights, among them, the right to defend their
life (when threatened), safeguard their liberty (against enslavement or despotism), and pursue their
own happiness as they see fit. A proposition, on the other hand, is like a geometric theorem: it is
something now put before us—a “pro-posit-ing”—whose truth must be proved; yet it may turn out
to be either unprovable or even false. According to Lincoln, human equality was less a self-evident
premise 27 of the American founding, more a proposition in need of future demonstration.
The significance of shifting “all men are created equal” from axiom to proposition is revealed
by Lincoln’s second big change: according to Lincoln “our fathers” treated “all men are created
equal” not, as the Declaration states, as a truth that “we hold,” but as a proposal to which they
were dedicated. Lincoln shifts the picture from theory to practice: the proposition is more than an
intellectual matter that one holds as a belief and proves in speech; it is a practical and moral goal
to which one must devote oneself in action. The effective truth of the proposition of human equality
cannot be shown by Euclidean reasoning; it must be demonstrated through deed and devotion.

26

The term “men” in the Declaration of Independence clearly means “human beings,” and refers equally to male
and female human beings. The same is true of both of the putative sources for the Declaration’s teaching of human
equality: the natural rights teaching of John Locke and the “created-in-the-image-of-God” teaching of the Bible
(“God created man in his own image; male and female created He them”).
27
It should also be noted that, in the Declaration, “all men are created equal” is but the first of several such selfevident truths. It is closely followed by assertions about (a) (equal) inalienable rights, (b) rights secured by
governments, justly instituted (only) by consent of the governed, and (in the event that instituted governments become
destructive of those ends) (c) the right of revolution and of instituting new government, according to principles and
forms deemed likely to effect the people’s safety and happiness. Thus, in contrast to Lincoln’s formulation in the
Gettysburg Address, in the context of the declaring independence, the claim of human equality, although it is stated
first, functions less as a national credo, and more as the beginning of a logical argument for legitimating the American
Revolution.
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To avoid possible misunderstanding, we need to clarify what sort of human equality needs
proof through deed and devotion. The propositional “created equal” clearly does not mean,
“created the same.” Neither does it mean equal in every respect. We human beings naturally differ
in body and mind, talents and character, desire and determination. Some of us are sturdy, swift, or
striving; others are sickly, slow, or slothful. Some find success and happiness, others failure and
misery. Some are rich, powerful, and in positions of authority; most people are not. But these
natural, social, or economic inequalities in no way contradict the equal humanity of otherwise
differing human beings. Neither do they refute the derivative—and politically relevant—idea of
natural or God-given equal rights, including the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
It is the Declaration’s (pre-political) equality of intrinsic rights, not social or political equality, to
which, according to Lincoln, our nation was dedicated and which, as a proposition, requires proof
through deed and dedication. 28
Third, and most subtly, Lincoln does not ask us to think of the proposition only as a universal
truth that we too can try to prove in practice; he wraps that truth in the pious drapery of the
dedication of our fathers. We should take an interest in this proposition, he implies, not only
because it might be true, but as a matter of honoring the memory of our remarkable fathers. In
short, Lincoln has transformed a merely intellectual truth, held as self-evident and accessible to
universal human reason (the Declaration’s formulation), into a truth requiring practical
demonstration by particular people—our fathers—who dedicated themselves to doing so. In this
way, Lincoln summons our ancestral piety and attaches it to the principles of an emerging political
religion, whose creed he is here redefining. Yet, as we shall see, ancestral piety alone cannot
sustain us, and a new birth is necessary, in large part because our fathers did not get it exactly
right—not so much in idea as in practice.
Why does Lincoln change the Declaration? In order to address and correct a deep difficulty in
our founding regarding the relation between equality and liberty. A clue is provided in the other
big idea in the first sentence, “conceived in liberty.” We know the fathers, we know the mother
continent, and we know the child nation and to what it is dedicated. But what is meant by
“conceived in liberty,” and how does this figure in Lincoln’s revision of the story of America’s
birth?
Attending closely to the image of generation, we note that, because conception precedes birth,
our fathers who brought forth the new nation, according to Lincoln, already enjoyed liberty when
they conceived her. But the oddity of the “in” in the phrase, “conceived in Liberty,” has confused
me for some time. One astute reader suggested that, just as a natural child is “conceived in love,”
so the American national child was “conceived in love of Liberty.” I myself have instead toyed
with “conceived freely, conceived by choice,” not by necessity or nature or in a fit of passion, or,
alternatively, “conceived in an act of independence and liberation, from the rule of Britain.” But
an illuminating interpretation was given me by my friend, Harvey Flaumenhaft, of St. John’s
College, Annapolis. “In Liberty,” he suggests, refers to the political matrix that characterizes both
“the before” and “the after” of the “bringing forth” of the new nation, and that matrix is British
28

It is commonly overlooked that, because of the great diversity of talents, ambitions, and efforts of human beings,
securing these equal individual rights, especially the right to pursue happiness, virtually guarantees enormous
inequalities of outcomes and achievements—economic, social, cultural, political. Neither Lincoln nor the signers of
the Declaration of Independence were simple egalitarians.

liberty, the context also of the American colonies. Britain, like her colonies and the new republic,
was a liberal polity, but British liberty was mixed with a hereditary principle—not only the
monarchy, but especially a hereditary nobility of dukes and barons who lorded it over the
commons. The true American innovation is the freely chosen replacement of the hereditary
principle with the principle of equality and equal rights: governments, the Founders declared, exist
to secure the rights not only of the highborn of hereditary privilege but of all men, who are equally
endowed with unalienable rights. Or, in Lincoln’s formulation, our fathers exercised their liberty
to dedicate a new nation to the principle of human equality.
We today take for granted the compatibility of political liberty and political equality. But this
novel addition of the principle of equality to the principle of liberty was then an unprecedented
experiment. Not unreasonably, it gave rise to two big questions: Can a nation “so conceived and
so dedicated long endure”? Can political equality be obtained without the surrender of liberty?
Taking the second question first, Lincoln had been personally attacked as a tyrant who was
destroying liberty in his pursuit of equality: “Maryland, My Maryland,” the state song written in
1861, begins “The despot’s heel is on thy shore, Maryland! His torch is at thy temple door,
Maryland!” and the alleged despot is none other than Lincoln! His later suspension of the writ of
habeas corpus would eventually be ruled unconstitutional. Yet Lincoln teaches in this speech that
commitment to the proposition of human equality is not only compatible with liberty, but is in fact
freedom’s only true foundation.
Regarding the first point, the war, Lincoln says, is a test: a test of the durability of a nation
committed to equality as well as to liberty. 29 And although he does not say so here, as he does in
the Second Inaugural, the war is a test that is now upon the nation because of an offensive defect
in the founding. The defect is not mentioned by name in the Gettysburg Address, but its name is
slavery. (Lincoln, by the way, also does not mention either the North or the South—or the Union—
nor does he here assign blame for the war; in the Second Inaugural he will explicitly suggest that
the offense of slavery lies with the nation as a whole.)
The Declaration of Independence was a liberal document, not a republican (or democratic) one.
It did not by itself specify any particular form of government: any government (including
monarchy or aristocracy) is legitimate so long as it secures the rights of all who live under its rule
and rules by consent of the governed. Yet despite adding the egalitarian principle to the British
liberal principle, and despite the fact that, in Lincoln’s reformulation of the nation’s birth, equality
as the goal was to come out of liberty by way of dedication, the new nation was flawed and stained
from the start by the institution of slavery.
Contrary to current opinion, many of the Founders understood that America’s practice fell
short of its founding principles, and they devised instrumentalities that they hoped would place
slavery in the course of its ultimate extinction. But by Lincoln’s time the situation had deteriorated.
29

Lincoln insisted that the civil war was a test also for durability of any nation so conceived and so dedicated. Why
might our civil war have such universal significance? In part, perhaps, because of the unprecedented character and
great good fortune of America’s founding: what other nation heretofore in the name of certain abstract moral and
political principles? But also, as we shall see, because the war was fought precisely to defend those principles against
rebellious forces that denied those principles and sought to destroy the nation that rested on them. Victory against a
rebellion based on denial of fundamental principles is surely evidence of durability.
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Not only was the regime in contradiction with itself, falling short of its stated ideals; worse, the
South in rebelling had given effect to the view that the principle of equality was not merely too
lofty but, in fact, as a proposition simply false. Lincoln knew that this denial of human equality
was the true cause of the war; and Lincoln understood that the bloody struggle over slavery was
the true test of the nation. Now that the self-evident truth of equality had been turned into a
proposition needing proof, and now that the rebels had repudiated the proposition calling it a selfevident lie, passing the test meant winning the war, in part because winning the war meant a
repudiation of the repudiation, a vindication of the proposition of equality. And, in practical terms,
only by winning the war and by restoring the Union could slavery be abolished and the equal
humanity of all citizens given enduring political legitimacy.
This is made clear in the end of the speech, where Lincoln moves from the deeds of the noble
dead to “us the living,” and, finally, from the religious language of dedication and devotion to the
more political language of resolution.
It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these
honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure
of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this
nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by
the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Why must “we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain”? The goal for which
victory is indispensable, stated in Lincoln’s conclusion, is two-fold, both aspects transcending the
mere restoration of the now dissolved Union: first, “that this nation, under God, shall have a new
birth of freedom”; and second, “that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall
not perish from the earth.”
The new birth of freedom—for which Lincoln is here offering the baptismal blessing and
explanation—is a birth made possible only through bloodshed, not through generative congress of
ancestral patriarchs and mother continent. More important, this new freedom will differ from the
British liberty in which the nation was first conceived. Here equality will not come out of liberty.
Rather, if we adhere to our resolve, freedom will be newly born out of equality, because the
inegalitarian principle and the practice of slavery will be repudiated and defeated as the necessary
condition of rebirth. Masters as well as slaves will share in this new birth of freedom, having shed
the mutual degradation that enslavement brings to them both. Liberty, says Lincoln, has not only
not been destroyed, as the rebels claimed; it will for the first time be put on a truly secure
foundation: the radical equality of all human beings, now thrice called “the people,” who will
govern and be governed for their own well-being. We the people, we the living rededicating
ourselves here on the graves of the fallen and resolving to act hereafter in service to the cause,
become, under God, the nation’s new patriarchs and founders.
But it is Lincoln’s final words, those enunciating the second goal of the war, that show why
the new birth of freedom goes beyond the mere abolition of slavery, and why the vindication of
the principle of equality goes beyond securing the intrinsic human rights of the Declaration of
Independence. “Government of the people, by the people, for the people” is, in fact, Lincoln’s final
alteration and improvement of the Declaration, going beyond its neutrality regarding the form of
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government. To the Declaration’s legitimating philosophical principle of consent of the governed
Lincoln adds the operative practical (and Constitutional) principle of popular self-government. Not
only are the people to be governed (“of the people”), but they are to do the governing (“by the
people”). Also, the clear purpose of government is not the prosperity of the few, but the well-being
of all (“for the people”). The new synthesis of freedom and equality takes the form of democratic
self-rule—not just rule of the majority, but that special sort of democratic self-rule that is informed
by the proposition of radical human equality and equal human rights.
The nation conceived in liberty got a new birth, a birth of freedom and popular selfgovernment, thanks to the self-sacrificing deeds of “the brave men . . . who struggled here” and
thanks to the dedication of the living, under Lincoln’s leadership, to “the cause for which they
gave their last full measure of devotion.” But taking the long view, the nation became better able
to attach the hearts and minds of its citizens thanks to the words fitly spoken at Gettysburg by
Father Abraham, who presided over its refounding in speech no less than in deed and whose words
have inspired all who came afterwards to dedicate themselves to preserve, protect, and perfect our
political freedom and equality. Today and tomorrow, our attachment to the republic is greatly
enhanced whenever we reanimate Lincoln’s words and, under their still living instruction, remain
dedicated to his vision of our national purpose.

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Lincoln at Two Hundred
WALTER BERNS
On the two hundredth anniversary of Lincoln’s birth, scholar and author Walter Berns (1919–
2015) gave these remarks in Washington, DC as part of the Bradley Lecture Series hosted by the
American Enterprise Institute. This speech was the culmination of decades of scholarship on
Lincoln by Berns, a fellow Illinoisan who in his youth had watched Civil War veterans parade
down Chicago’s streets.
How was Lincoln extraordinary, according to Berns? What situation did he confront as
president? Why did he decide to go to war, and why did he continue the war? How did Lincoln
“correct” the Declaration of Independence in the Gettysburg Address? How does he reattach the
hearts and minds of his listeners (and readers) to this “statement of fundamental principles”?
Why, according to Berns, is Lincoln’s way with words so important?
Watch Leon Kass and Walter Berns discuss Lincoln here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiOW7QKbNlQ.
More has been written about Abraham Lincoln than of any other president or, for that matter, any
other American; the amount is prodigious: no fewer than 16,000 books and goodness knows how
many journal articles. I cannot claim to have read more than a portion of this vast literature, and I
very much doubt that I can say anything about Lincoln that has not already been said by someone,
somewhere, sometime. Yet I am obliged to say something.
What accounts for the extraordinary interest in him? Well, he was an extraordinary man; he
did things ordinary men don’t do. For example, his law partner reports how, while on circuit the
other lawyers, and sometimes even the circuit judge, were asleep in the room, Lincoln would lie
on the floor, with a lamp, studying Euclid’s Elements, the geometry book which begins with
definitions (e.g., a point is that which has no parts); followed by postulates and axioms (e.g., things
which are equal to the same thing are equal to each other); leading to the propositions, two sorts
of propositions, problems and theorems (e.g., describe an equilateral triangle on a given finite
straight line, and in any right-angled triangle, the square which is described on the side subtending
the right angle is equal to the squares described on the sides which contain the right angle). These
propositions have then to be demonstrated, which is done diagrammatically, showing, in the one
case, that the problem is solved, and, in the second, that the theorem is true.
All very interesting, and in some respects, or for some purposes, very important. The Elements
is one of the books in the Great Books curriculum; indeed, for almost two thousand years (until
Descartes) Euclid was geometry—but what has it to do with the practice of law in the Illinois of
the 1840s?
My point is, only an unusual intellectual curiosity could have led a backwoods lawyer to pick
it up and proceed to master it. Lincoln was different, and he had to know it.

Imagine, if you will, what it was like for this man to live in a place like New Salem, Illinois,
in the 1830s, a town without books, without civilization, without anyone like himself with whom
he might want to talk. The Springfield he moved to in 1837 was not much better. Yet, in both
places, something drove him to get his hands on books, not only Euclid’s geometry but history
books, grammar books, Shakespeare’s books, and books of poetry.
He was an avid reader of poetry, beginning with the poems of Scotland’s Robert Burns and
continuing with those of England’s George Gordon, Lord Byron. He started this reading in New
Salem and Springfield, and continued it in the White House, where he could get books from the
Library of Congress. But what has “My Heart’s In the Highlands” to do with the relief or
provisioning of Fort Sumter? And what has Byron’s “Don Juan,” pronounced here (for scanning
purposes) “Don Ju-an,” what has it to do with emancipating slaves? Especially what is perhaps its
best known passage: “A little still she strove, and much repented, and whispering ‘I will never
consent,’ consented. . . .” What has this to do with any of the problems that crossed his White
House desk? Nothing at all, of course. I mention it only because it tells us something about the sort
of man he was. He also read the Bible, and seems to have been familiar with it. Burns, Byron,
Bible; no one going to school with them is likely to have a tin ear. This was surely true of Lincoln.
Their influence on him is evident, not in what he said, but in how he said it, in the rhythm or music
of his speech. I’ll have more to say about this in due course.
He was, of course, president in an extraordinary time; but so were Woodrow Wilson and
Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was assassinated while in office; but so were James Garfield, William
McKinley, and John F. Kennedy. Admittedly, there is something unusual or special about his
assassination; there was something profoundly political about it, and he may have foreseen it; he
surely had forebodings of it. For example, he had the habit of quoting these words of Shakespeare’s
Richard II: “For God’s sake, let us sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the death of kings . .
. all murdered.” (From act III, scene 2.) What does one make of this?
Senator Charles Sumner reports—and so does the French diplomat, the Marquis de
Chambrun—that, on returning from Richmond and a visit with General Grant the day before Lee’s
surrender at Appomattox, knowing that the war was effectively over, Lincoln had twice recited the
following lines from Shakespeare’s Macbeth:
Duncan is in his grave;
After life’s fitful fever, he sleeps well;
Treason has done his worst; nor steel, nor poison,
Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing
Can touch him further. (Act III, scene 2.)
Apparently, he saw himself as Duncan. Sumner thought so. If not, why does he quote the
passage, not once but twice, and at this time? (Macbeth was his favorite play. As he said to a wellknown Shakespearean actor, “nothing equals Macbeth, it is wonderful.”)
Of course, Lincoln did great things; greater than anything done by Wilson or Roosevelt, or
Garfield, McKinley, and Kennedy; he freed the slaves and saved the Union, and because he saved
the Union he was able free the slaves. Beyond this, however, it seems to me that our extraordinary
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interest in him, and esteem for him, has to do with what he said, and how he said it. And much of
this had to do with the Union: what it was and why it was worth the saving.
He saved it by fighting and winning the war, of course; but his initial step in this was the
decision to go to war in the first place. Not a popular decision, and certainly not an easy one. His
predecessor, the incompetent fool James Buchanan, believed that the states had no right to secede
from the Union, but that there was nothing he could do about it if they did. Or as Senator William
Seward put it, “he was commenting on Buchanan’s last Message to Congress, of December 3,
1860, ‘the states had no right to secede, unless they wanted to, and the president had the duty to
enforce the law, unless someone opposed him.’” Thus, by the time Lincoln took office, seven
southern states had seceded, and nothing had been done about it, specifically, nothing about their
seizure of federal property, the forts, arsenals, and naval facilities. Six of those states had formed
a new government, with a constitution, a congress and president; it was, as we say, “in business.”
Led by South Carolina, they claimed to be doing only what they and the other colonies had done
in 1776, and, on the whole, Buchanan agreed with them. Besides, to oppose them might bring on
the war, and Buchanan had no stomach for this. Yet he was the president, and had sworn an oath
to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States,” and to this end he was
given the powers of commander in chief. But he was the last man to use them.
It was otherwise with Lincoln. He knew very well that the time had come when the only way
to save the Union was to go to war. But he hesitated publicly to say so. Could he say it and retain
the support of the people who had voted for him? The abolitionists, for example. For them, slavery
was a sin, and the slave-holders sinners. But their leading spokesman, William Lloyd Garrison,
was no friend of the Union. He said the Constitution was “a covenant with death and an agreement
with hell,” and once set fire to a copy of it, uttering the evangelist battle-cry, “And let the people
say, amen.” He and his friends were of no help to Lincoln. He said—this was during the Fort
Sumter crisis—“all Union saving efforts are simply idiotic.”
Nor could Lincoln expect any help from his home-state newspaper, the Chicago Tribune. If
South Carolina wanted to secede, the Tribune said in an editorial, “let her go.” The country’s
leading antislavery editor, Horace Greeley of the New York Tribune, said much the same thing. As
he put it, “if the Cotton States shall become satisfied they can do better out of the Union than in it,
we insist on letting them go.” But suppose we had let them go. With them would have gone almost
all the slaves, gone to what claimed to be another country, a foreign country. How, then, would he
free them, except by going to war with that country? The self-righteous journalist did not say—
perhaps he would have had us enter into “real” negotiations with the Confederates—but it was his
desire to avoid war that led him to say what he said.
Another problem facing Lincoln was this: The people of the North, especially the Republicans,
were almost all of them antislavery, but they were also, almost all of them, anti-Negro. This
prejudice was reflected in the laws adopted by some of the northern states, among them Illinois,
Indiana, and Iowa, laws forbidding Negroes—free Negroes to enter or remain in the state. These
Yankees, as they were soon to be known, obviously did not want Negroes in their neighborhoods,
something their politicians could not afford to ignore.

Then,—I’m speaking here of the situation Lincoln faced before taking office—then there was
the question of those slave states that had not, or not yet, seceded, specifically the border states
Virginia, Maryland, Missouri, Kentucky. What would they do if he used force against the others?
Later on, he was to say that he hoped God was on the side of the Union, but that he had to have
Kentucky. Without it, there would be no chance of winning the civil war. (Look at a map.)
And, finally, there was the effort, a desperate or last-chance effort, to avoid the war by way of
compromise. This deserves to be treated in detail. On January 16, 1861, a mere six weeks before
Lincoln’s inauguration, the Kentuckian John Crittenden, on behalf of a Senate committee that
included the Democrats Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois and Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, as well
as Republicans Benjamin Wade of Ohio and William Seward of New York, proposed a set of six
constitutional amendments, that—I mention only the major provisions—(1) guaranteed slavery in
the states where it existed against future interference by the federal government, (2) denied
Congress any power to interfere with the interstate slave trade, and (3)—and here is what proved
to be the sticking point—prohibited slavery in the territories north of the Missouri Compromise
line, but protected it south of the line “in all territories now held, or hereafter acquired.”
Obviously, this was not much of a compromise; by giving them so much, the southern
Democrats could be expected eagerly to support them. For some reason—probably to avoid the
war—the amendments also had the support of some important Republicans, not only Senators
Wade and Seward, but certain businessmen and Wall Street bankers. But Lincoln said no. “Let
there be no compromise on the question of extending slavery,” he wrote his Republican friends in
Congress. “The instant you do, they have us under again; all our labor is lost. . . . Douglas is sure
to be again trying to bring in his ‘Pop. Sov.’ Have none of it. The tug has to come & better now
than later.” That tug came, and with it came the war.
Question: Would he have taken so hard a line, or refused all compromise, had he anticipated
the war would take the lives of—the number is appalling—some 620,000 Americans? Probably
not. (Nor, I suspect, would the southern states have seceded had they anticipated the price they
would pay.) Intransigent, Lincoln surely was, but before blaming him for this, consider the
alternative to war, or going to war? What was at stake?
Lincoln stated the essential point time and again, and best, because succinctly, in his speech at
the Cooper Institute in New York in February 1860. We Republicans, he said, think slavery wrong,
and ought to be restricted, and they, the southerners, think it right, and ought to be extended. “Their
thinking it right,” he said, “and our thinking it wrong, is the precise fact upon which depends the
whole controversy.”
And by this time, it was possible to know and state with sufficient precision what the extension
of slavery would involve. First, according to the Crittenden proposal, slavery was to be protected
south of the Missouri line “in all territories now held, or hereafter acquired, and by this they meant
territories not then, or not yet, part of the United States. And what were they? Well, Cuba, for
instance—the Democrats had long had their eyes on it; in 1854 they tried to buy it (Ostend
proposal); and in 1860 their party platforms, the Northern or Douglas Democrats and the Southern
or Breckinridge Democrats, both called for its acquisition. And not only Cuba, but Mexico, or that

part which we had not already “acquired,” and other places in Central America. But even this is
not all they had in mind.
There was a time when the southerners were satisfied with some—the southern part—of the
Louisiana Purchase territory; this was in 1820, when the Missouri compromise was adopted. And
later, after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act with its popular sovereignty provision, they
were satisfied merely with the possibility of slavery in all the territories (How much, if any, would
depend on the vote of the people living in them); this was in 1854.
But in 1857, the Supreme Court of the United States handed down the decision in the Dred
Scott case, holding that Congress, under the Constitution, could not prohibit slavery in any of the
territories, thereby opening them all to slavery, and putting an end to popular sovereignty.
But Chief Justice Roger Taney did more than that in his Dred Scott opinion, he opened a far
fairer prospect for the southern Democrats: slavery everywhere, not only in all the territories, but
in all the states, north as well as south, new as well as old, Illinois as well as Kentucky,
Massachusetts as well as Mississippi. How real a prospect was this? All it needed was another
Supreme Court decision, and Dred Scott paved the way for that. As Lincoln put it, if Dred Scott,
why not its sequel? Or, if the chief justice could dare the one, why could he not dare the other?
As stated in Dred Scott, what Taney said about this, the nationalization of slavery was only
dicta—words spoken in passing—not part of the holding in the case, but they were not nothing
there; he must have had some reason for making the statement; there is no reason to believe it was
inadvertent; it is too deliberate for that. This is what he said about this: “the right of property in a
slave is distinctly and expressly affirmed in the Constitution.” (Everyone, wherever he lives, has a
constitutional right to hold slaves.)
Taney was the chief justice of the United States, and, therefore, his word carried (or ought to
carry) some weight. Still, his saying it didn’t make it so, not yet, and it certainly was not then so.
The Constitution certainly did not say, or even imply, what he said it said. The late professor
Herbert Storing put this very well: “If one had to think of two adverbs that do not describe the way
the Constitution acknowledged slavery, he could not do better than “distinctly and expressly.”
Whatever else, Taney’s statement proved to be grist for Lincoln’s mill. He seized on it during
the debates with Douglas in 1858, and rang the changes on it. He began with the supremacy clause
of the Constitution (Article VI, clause 2), which provides (in part) that the Constitution is the
supreme law of the land, and that “the judges of every state shall be bound thereby anything in the
constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding.” He then constructed the
following syllogism:
Nothing in the constitution or laws of any state can destroy a right distinctly and expressly
affirmed in the Constitution of the United States.
The right of property in a slave is distinctly and expressly affirmed in the Constitution of the
United States.

Therefore, nothing in the constitution or laws of any state can destroy the right of property in
a slave.
Q.E.D., quod erat demonstrandum. And what was it that was demonstrated? Assuming Taney
spoke for them, the southerners wanted slavery nationalized, i.e., protected by the Constitution in
all the states of the United States. And beyond that, assuming Senators Crittenden and Davis also
spoke for them, they wanted slavery to be extended throughout the length and breadth of the
Americas; the only limits being the slaveholders’ appetite (or they would say, their need) and the
military power of the United States.
This, I suggest, is why Lincoln said, no to the Crittenden compromise, or so-called
compromise. And who—or who now—can blame him?
As to that, I wonder if we—we today—are not inclined to ignore or discount the very real
possibility of slavery becoming lawful in all the states. Suppose the Republican Party had heeded
the advice of Horace Greeley and other eastern Republicans and had supported Senator Douglas
in his reelection campaign in 1858. Douglas had won their favor by his opposition to the fraudulent
proslavery constitution proposed for Kansas, the so-called Lecompton constitution. Had they done
so, that is, had the Republicans supported Douglas for senator in 1858, there would have been no
Lincoln-Douglas debates, and, therefore, no “Freeport question” from Lincoln: “May the people
of a Territory, in any lawful way, against the wish of a citizen of the United States, exclude slavery
from its limits prior to the formation of a State constitution.” That was the question Lincoln asked
at Freeport, and by answering it, by saying that despite the Supreme Court’s decision in the Dred
Scott case, the people might exclude slavery from the territory, Douglas lost the support of the
southern Democrats, which, in turn, caused the split in the party in 1860 and led to the election of
Lincoln. Suppose, therefore, a Democratic administration in Washington led by a man (Douglas)
who did not care whether slavery was voted up or down, and supported by a party most of whose
members wanted very much that it be voted up. What would have been the consequences of that?
And, once again employing faint-hearted Horace Greeley as a foil, suppose Lincoln had heeded
his advice and had entered into peace negotiations with the Confederates in the spring or summer
of 1864, without insisting, as Lincoln always did, that the Confederate states agree to abolish
slavery. The Confederates would surely have jumped at the chance, and the northern people, who
had grown more and more weary of the war—they had taken to singing, “When This Cruel War
Is Over”; a million copies of it had been sold—and were obviously yearning for peace. They
obviously had reason to think it a cruel war. In six weeks, beginning May 3, 1864—this was after
Antietam, after Gettysburg, after Fredericksburg—at the Wilderness, and continuing at
Spotsylvania (May 10-14), and Cold Harbor (June 1), Grant’s Army of the Potomac had lost some
65,000 men, killed, wounded, or missing in action, and 7,000 in an afternoon, at Cold Harbor. As
Greeley wrote to Lincoln, “Our bleeding, bankrupt, almost dying country, yearns for peace—
shudders at the prospect of fresh conscriptions, of further wholesale devastations, and of new rivers
of human blood. . . . I entreat you,” he said, “entreat you to submit overtures for peace to the
Southern insurgents.” But Lincoln refused to do so. By making abolition a condition for peace,
Greeley said, Lincoln gave “new strength to the Democrats.” So he did. As one of them wrote,
“Tens of thousands of white men must yet bite the dust to allay the Negro mania of the President.”
And the Democratic party, meeting in Chicago in August ’64, adopted a peace platform in which
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they pledged to “preserve the rights of the States unimpaired” (meaning their right to hold slaves).
The situation was such that Lincoln expected to be beaten (and, he said, “unless some great change
takes place, badly beaten”). Even the abolitionists were against him. Wendell Phillips declared that
he would “cut off both hands before doing anything to aid Lincoln’s reelection.”
Who—besides Lincoln—was then for continuing the war, at so terrible a price? Surely not the
troops, who were deserting in droves, and not many of the officers. As one general said—this was
after Cold Harbor—“For thirty days it has been one funeral procession past me, and it has been
too much.” But Lincoln, almost alone, was intransigent, just as he had been in 1861.
But suppose he had agreed to sue for peace, a peace without conditions, a peace whereby the
Union would have been as it was before the war, but with slavery more than ever safely secured
in those states that wanted it, and its champions agitating for its extension. What would have been
the consequences of that? We might discuss this later.
I earlier attributed our extraordinary interest in Lincoln, and especially our esteem for him,
partly to what he said and how he said it. He was surely a great writer and speaker of words; in my
judgment, the greatest. As I said on another occasion, he was (and is) our national poet. In saying
this, I referred initially—because of their emotional appeal—to some of his private letters, the one
to Mrs. Bixby, for instance, or my favorite, the letter of condolence to the teen-aged Fanny
McCullough, whose father, a Lincoln friend from Illinois, had been killed in battle. But I know no
better way to demonstrate his poetic gifts, or the awesome beauty of his words, than by quoting
the closing paragraph of his First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861.
The Address was written, we know, in Springfield, before he departed for Washington. We
have also been told, and have reason to believe, that every speech that carries his name was, in
fact, written by him; he employed no speech writer. And we know from his law partner William
Herndon that Lincoln was “inflexibly” opposed to changes in what he had written, especially on
this occasion, because he was anxious to avoid any words that might “fan the flames of secession.”
The closing paragraph in the Address might be an exception, an exception that can be said to
prove the rule. The idea for it, or its central metaphor, was written and given to Lincoln by
Senator—and soon to be Secretary of State—Seward. This is what Seward suggested that he say:
I close. We are not, we must not be aliens or enemies but fellow countrymen and brethren.
Although passion has strained our bonds of affection too hardly they must not, I am sure they
will not be broken. The mystic chords of memory which proceeding from so many battlefields
and so many patriot graves pass through all the hearts and all the hearths in this broad continent
of ours will yet again harmonize in their ancient music when breathed upon by the guardian
angels of the nation.
And this is what Lincoln said:
I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion
may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory,
stretching from every battle-field and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all
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over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they
will be, by the better angels of our nature.
It is not by chance that his best and most celebrated speech was delivered on a battlefield, on
the occasion of dedicating a cemetery filled with the graves of patriots. I speak, of course, of the
Gettysburg Address.
A prefatory statement before turning to the Address: the principles of the Constitution are set
down in the Declaration of Independence, a document that appeals to the “laws of Nature and of
Nature’s God, a god—arguably, at least—that reveals himself not in the Bible but in the “book of
nature,” the book readable in our day by astrophysicists and in those days by the Enlightenment
philosophers and their students, such as Thomas Jefferson. What Lincoln did at Gettysburg was to
make something else of the Declaration: a statement of fundamental principles—“our ancient
faith,” as he put it—to which we were attached not only with our minds, but with our hearts.
It is brief, a mere 272 words, and could not have taken much more than five minutes to deliver.
In its central passage, Lincoln says, “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say
here, but it can never forget what they did here.” Well, what little do we remember?
We remember he said that this nation was founded in 1776 with the Declaration of
Independence and its principles. We remember this because of the unusual way he said it. Not
eighty-seven years ago, but “four score and seven.” His Bible-reading audience assembled there
(and afterwards) would surely have remembered what he said because, in what he said, they would
have heard echoes of the Ninetieth Psalm, where the psalmist says, “three score and ten,” our years
on this earth, and “four score” if we’re healthy. They would not have known that the principles we
declared in 1776 had their wellspring not in the Bible, but in the second of John Locke’s Two
Treatises of Government, and that Locke’s connection with us is confirmed by the fact that his
words are—although without attribution—three times quoted in our Declaration; they would not
be told this because our association-one-with-another is supposed to be something more exalted
than a Lockean contract entered into by antisocial individuals seeking only to secure their private
rights. (Did Lincoln not speak of us as friends?) They might instead, because of the implied
association with the Bible, as well as Lincoln’s designation of the Founders as “our Fathers”—
who art in heaven? —they might also have thought—as they probably were expected to think—
that our founding, if not sacred, was surely not profane.
They (his Bible-reading audience) might also have thought this because—and this, too, we
remember—Lincoln goes on to say, after suggesting that the nation so founded might not long
endures, that the brave men, living and dead, who struggled on this ground, this battlefield, had
“consecrated” it better than he or anyone else could. Consecrated? Had made it sacred, a
battlefield? As if they—presumably the Union soldiers—were fighting for the Lord? No, but their
cause was great and noble.
We also remember Lincoln saying that their work was “unfinished,” and that we, the living,
should highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain and that this nation, “under God,
shall have a new birth of freedom,” and that government of, by, and for the people shall not perish
from the earth.
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What little do we remember? In a word, and despite what he said, we remember everything he
said, and we remember it because he took great pains to say it beautifully, to the end that we
remember it.
We also remember his Second Inaugural Address, especially the concluding paragraph—the
poignant beauty of it:
With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to
see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to
care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan—to do all
which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all
nations.
Six weeks later he was murdered.
We say that a man can be known by the company he keeps. So I say that a nation, a people,
can be known and be judged by its heroes, by whom it honors above all others.
We pay ourselves the greatest compliment when we say that Abraham Lincoln is that man for
us.

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About the Cover
This portrait of Abraham Lincoln was painted by George Henry
Story (1835–1922) in 1915. Story was born in New Haven,
Connecticut and initially worked as a wood-carver. In the mid1830s, he traveled to Europe to study painting, and on his return
in 1858, opened a studio in Portland, Maine. By 1860, he had
moved to Washington, DC, where he was asked to help pose
President Lincoln for his first official presidential photograph.
Story took the opportunity to make sketches of the President,
which he later used to create several portraits. Of his time in the
Oval Office, he wrote, “On three successive days I quietly
entered the president’s office and made pencil notes of my
subject and mental observations of the changes in his
countenance while he was . . . under the influence of state affairs
in the different interviews with his visitors. After each sitting I
returned to my room and worked upon my picture with my sitter as vividly in mind almost as
though he were in my actual presence.”
Story recalled that he made additional renderings in 1915 because he couldn’t find a portrait
of Lincoln in any of Washington’s public galleries or departmental buildings. Copies now hang in
the White House, the Smithsonian Institution, the Metropolitan Museum, and several other
institutions.
What do each of these elements contribute to the overall impression: the framing, the pose, the
light, the color, the dress, the profile, the gaze, the brow, the nose, the chin, and the expression?
How well does this portrait capture the man you think you know and have read about in this book?

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Acknowledgments
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following authors and publishers for permission to reprint
previously published materials. Thanks are also due to Cheryl Miller, Barrett Bowdre, Katie
LeValley, Lily Reeder, and Rebecca Burgess for their assistance.
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Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, 1942).
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Hughes, Langston. “Lincoln Monument: Washington.” From The Collected Works of Langston
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—. Emancipation Proclamation. January 1, 1863. Available at
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—. Eulogy of Henry Clay. July 6, 1852. Available at
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—. Farewell Address. February 11, 1861. Available at
http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/farewell-speech-2/.
—. First Inaugural Address. March 4, 1861. Available at
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—. Gettysburg Address. November 19, 1863. Available at
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—. House Divided Speech. June 16, 1858. Available at
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—. Letter to Horace Greeley. August 22, 1862. Available at
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—. Letter to J. W. Fell. December 20, 1859. Available at
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—. Lyceum Address. January 27, 1838. Available at
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—. Second Inaugural Address. March 4, 1865. Available at
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